Naruto: The Prototype
by Intimidator1323
Summary: I was betrayed. I should have seen it coming. I was foolish and payed the price. But now I have the power to avenge myself. Let all who have invoked my wrath howl in despair and tremle in fear. I am Naruto Uzumaki. I am a breed apart. I am the Prototype.
1. Authors Note

Before I begin writing this story, I'd like to make a few things perfectly clear:

This will be a Naruto/Prototype crossover

The Naruto in this story will be intelligent, bold, sarcastic, and ruthless among other things. He will be prone to speak various words of wisdom. He also speaks his mind and voices his opinion quite frequently no matter how blunt. The Naruto of this universe has always been this way and stopped being immature and childish after the events of stealing the Forbidden Scroll at the beginning of the series.

Naruto will be a living evolutionary breakthrough that is able survive and adapt to any situations and will outgrow all of his own weaknesses because of this (poor chakra control, losing control of Kyuubi, impatience, etc.).

Naruto will not rely on his jutsu nowhere near as much as much as he does in the series.

The timeline before the events of this story will remain the same with a few differences (will be shown in flashbacks).

The story starts at the end of the fight between Naruto and Sasuke at The Valley of The End, in which Naruto wins.

Naruto will show signs of insanity but it is just an act to intimidate his foes, as well as cause them to underestimate him.

Naruto will possess all the powers of the Prototype game's main character, Alex Mercer, with a few slight differences.

Naruto gains these powers through a mutation, not a virus.

SPOILERS IF YOU HAVEN'T PLAYED PROTOTYPE DO NOT READ!!! Unlike Alex Mercer (aka BlackLight) Naruto will always be himself and not the mutation that gave him these powers.

Naruto will consume people and gain their appearances, talents, skills, and memories, but he will NOT consume any innocent people.

Naruto will spend most of the story in his armored form similar to Alex Mercers armored form from the game, but there will be differences in the armors appearance.

Filler Characters will appear in this story.

This is a NaruxInoxHina story. Don't like it? Too bad, so sad, look at me, fuck you.

If you are serous, die-hard fans of Sasuke, Sakura, and/or Kakashi, for god's sake, DO. NOT. READ. THIS (You've been warned)!!!


	2. Prolouge: The Deepest Circle of Hell

Naruto: The Prototype

By Intimidator 1323

Disclamer: I do not own Naruto or Prototype and I most likely never will.

"The goal of evolution is self - conquest":

Elbert Hubbard (1856-1915)

Prologue: The Deepest Circle of Hell

BOOM!

A massive explosion was heard from the Valley of The End as two powerful attacks collided into each other in a battle of life and death. At first, only dust could be seen on the battleground.

What happened?

Who survived?

Who will emerge from the haze in one piece?

Who the hell is fighting anyway?

The suspense grew almost unbearable. But slowly, yet surely, the dust settled, and a lone figure was seen standing over his fallen foe. This figure wore an orange jumpsuit, had blonde hair, and three whisker marks on each cheek.

Naruto Uzumaki stood victorious over his traitorous former teammate Sasuke Uchiha. Naruto smirked slightly as he looked down on his fallen foe. It was a close battle, very close. Naruto had managed to keep up with Sasuke easily at the beginning even after his Sharingan fully matured in the middle of combat (I know it's not what really happened but fuck you it's my fic). It was only after Sasuke activated his curse seal did he actually manage to temporarily keep Naruto on his toes. To counter this Naruto was forced to tap into a fraction of the near limitless chakra of the Kyuubi sealed within him since the day he was born. After Sasuke activated his second stage of his curse seal, causing to transform into a demonic, vampire like creature with two hand shaped wings that enabled flight (like Naruto didn't have enough problems as it was), Naruto was able to call upon his one-tailed form and evened the fight. Eventually, in one final simultaneous attack, Naruto's Rasengan prevailed over Sasuke's Chidori and Sasuke was thrown into the large statue of his ancestor Madara Uchiha. This caused his curse seal to recede as he weakly tried to attack Naruto again. Naruto had dissipated the Red Chakra he was using, easily caught the exhausted Uchiha's punch, smashed it back into his face, grabbed his head, and dunked it beneath the water of the river that they were fighting on. Naruto held him there for a few moments until he stopped struggling and pulled the unconscious, oxygen-depraved Uchiha out of the water and dragged him to the shore. Naruto checked Sasuke's pulse and was relieved to find that he was still alive. All of this happened before the dust cleared.

"And fucking stay down this time", Naruto said under his breath while breathing heavily from exhaustion. He surveyed the historical landmark turned battlefield with amusement. "Well, other than trashing a landmark of great historical importance, job well done", he said while dusting off the gravel and dust from his jumpsuit. He looked down at his defeated friend. "Now then teme, time to drag your sorry runaway ass back home." Naruto began restraining said teme with ninja wire.

Unbeknownst to our blonde hero (can't believe I actually wrote that), however, he was being watched. The person watching him was someone he knew well; the man was his sensei after all. Watching from the nearby trees was Kakashi Hatake the infamous copy ninja. The cyclopean jonin eyed his students with very different expressions (as much expression as you can get with a person who covers three quarters of his face). One expression was one of intense worry, another of loathing and anger.

'Look at him' he thought angrily, 'taking in his accomplishment, gloating over nearly killing his own teammate with his demonic chakra'. Yes, despite all of his talk of companionship and teamwork; despite having watched over and protected the boy as a child, he truly did hate Naruto. He, like the arrogant villagers, blamed Naruto for the death of loved one's during Kyuubi's attack on Konoha nearly 13 years ago, more specifically his teammate Rin and his sensei Minato Namikaze, the Yondaime Hokage and Naruto's father. For years he kept an open mind, for years he tried to see Naruto as a person, as a hero as his dying sensei's last wish for the whole village was. He began to have his doubts, however, when Naruto accessed Kyuubi's chakra in order to defeat Haku in Wave Country. Kakashi tried to keep in mind that it could have just been a slip up caused by the boy's anger at Sasuke's apparent death. Naruto was typically good at controlling his own emotions after all. But now he had no doubt that the being standing in the valley was not Naruto.

It was the Kyuubi.

"Kakashi, you okay?", came a voice to his right. The Cyclops looked at the source of the voice, at his faithful ninja tracker dog Pakkun. Pakkun's size was laughable, but what he lacked in size he made up for in loyalty. The little dog was an expert tracker and had led Kakashi to the battle ground just in time to see the dust settle.

"I'm fine Pakkun, just have a lot on my mind", the jonin said in an even voice. It took all of his self control to keep himself from trembling in anger. It wasn't fair! 'Why did the Hokages defend this monster? What did they see in him? Wait, did he hypnotize the Sandaime? The Godaime? Is that why people change when they are around him? Why everyone who he encounters has life changing epiphanies that completely changes their lives.' He remembered Zabuza who sacrificed his life to kill Gato after Naruto told him how highly Haku thought of him. He remembered the people of Wave rising up against Gato because Naruto had given hope to little Inari. He remembered being told about how Neji did a complete 180 personality wise after his fight with Naruto. He remembered Gaara, a bloodthirsty, homicidal maniac who killed to prove his existence, change and finding a way to exist without bloodlust and learn to protect others. He remembered Princess Koyuki Kazahana, who started out as a complete bitch but ended becoming ruler of her people after Naruto inspired her. Finally, he thought of the Godaime Hokage and Slug Sannin Tsunade who had not only overcome her Hemophobia (fear of blood), but also overcame her hatred of Konoha because of her past thanks to Naruto. The Sannin thought of Naruto as the son she never had, and, even though she never said it out loud, wanted to help Naruto become the next Hokage. That thought angered him the most. 'Hokage! Him!' Kakashi thought angrily, in his mind the village would be better off letting Orochimaru be Hokage!

The worst part to him was that there was nothing he could do, nothing he could do to erase the monster from existence without having someone figure out that he was behind it.

These weren't the only thoughts racing through his mind however.

He thought of Sasuke's well being, wondering about his well being and, more importantly, his sanity. Who knows what the curse mark and fighting the Kyuubi had done to the boy's psyche? Who knew what the council would do to Sasuke when he was brought before them (take a fucking guess)? More importantly, who knew what Sasuke would do when he was recovered? Sasuke would not take this loss lightly. He would most likely try to flee the village again. There was hardly anything the village, nor himself, could give him in terms of power or ability. The curse seal was the most powerful ability he could use in combat. What ability could be more powerful or more appealing to Sasuke? The Cyclops didn't know of any!

No…that wasn't entirely true.

Kakashi did know one thing that could surpass the curse seal.

One thing that could be more appealing to Sasuke than anything Orochimaru could offer him.

One thing that would require an inhuman act to acquire.

'The Mangekyo Sharingan', he thought to himself.

It was true, the more advanced form of the sharingan was far more powerful than the curse seal and its power's were even more terrifying (both he and Sasuke have bared witness to this). In fact, if used correctly, the user would not have to take a single step in order to defeat any foe.

Almost all of the Mangekyo's abilities require eye contact to perform.

The Tsukuyomi, the most powerful and most terrifying genjutsu ever seen throughout the Elemental Nations. It takes effect once the victim looks into the user's eyes and once it takes effect, the battle is as good as won. The victim is taken into a realm of nightmares and madness where the user controls everything, including time. Days in this nightmare realm last only one second in reality. Inside this realm the victim is tortured for what seems like days on end in horrifying ways of the users choosing. This genjutsu cannot be broken by anyone except another Mangekyo user, anyone else is at the user's mercy.

The Ameterasu is another ability of the Mangekyo and is an extremely painful way to die. The user closes their eyes for a moment before opening them quickly. The moment this happens, the focus of the user's gaze immediately bursts into black flames. This "Black Fire" is the hottest substance known to exist, said to be even hotter than the surface of the sun. The fire burns for seven days and nights before extinguishing. The only other way to stop the flames is to either seal them or the user has to use the Mangekyo to extinguish them. Unlike Tsukuyomi, the user does not have to look into the foes eyes; he or she just has to look in the foes general direction and well…you know the rest.

Kamui is a Mangekyo ability that can be used for both offense and defense. When activated the point of the user's focus collapses into itself creating a vortex that sucks the foe into another dimension. This can be used to intercept enemy attacks as well as against enemies themselves.

Finally, the last known technique of the Mangekyo Shanringan is the Susanoo, the unstoppable warrior. This ability creates a perfect offense and defense. When used the user summons a large spirit made entirely out of energy. This entity is always different depending on the person who summoned it, and serves as the user's guardian. It will defend the user with all of its might. It attacks it's opponent in various ways depending on its appearance. The user, meanwhile, acts as a medium for the spirit itself. This ability is rare even among sharingan users, and is the most difficult ability of the Mangekyo to maintain. The user must act as a medium for the spirit and it takes the user's own life energy to maintain, causing extreme pain, and requires all of the user's concentration to maintain. This, of course, leaves the user vulnerable. Fortunately the energy the entity is composed of is nearly unbreakable and, since it surrounds the user completely, it makes the user nearly impossible to attack directly. Even if it is damaged it can regenerate using more life energy from the user, if the user wills it. The foe's only hope is to damage it enough or wait until the strain of its use takes its toll on the user and the spirit disappears.

Yes, all of these abilities are available to anyone who acquires it. The price to attain it, however is a monstrous one at best or, at worst, completely psychotic. There is only one known way to obtain it: the person must kill the person closest to them, be they siblings, parents, friends, or even lovers. The emotion caused by the loss is what causes it to activate.

There is also a price to pay for using it; repeated use of the Mangekyo will eventually rob the person of their sight, thus rendering them blind. This is because the techniques produced by the advanced sharingan require a large amount of chakra from the users eyes to the point where the eyes begin to deteriorate with each use. The only person who has ever found a way around this is the Uchiha clan founder Madara, and how he did this is currently unknown (to the people of the Naruto universe as of now).

So those were the main dilemmas on Kakashi's mind at that moment. How to get rid of the "demon" and how to get Sasuke to stay in Konoha and give him the power he needs to fulfill his goal, so he could make his deceased teammate Obito proud.

'How?', he thought, 'how can I find a way avenge Rin and Minato-sensei as well as giving Sasuke what he needs in order to-'

And then it hit him.

He knew a way, a way to accomplish both feats at once! A way to keep Sasuke in the village and bring about Naruto's death and have no one to pin it on effectively. 'I need to work fast and this is the only chance I'll ever get', he thought eagerly. But there was one thing he needed to take care of first; Pakkun.

"Pakkun, you can go now", he said in a worried voice, "I need to see to my students", Kakashi said to the little dog. Pakkun nodded and disappeared in a puff of smoke.

'Good ', Kakashi thought, 'now that the area is free of witnesses …', he began to channel chakra into his arm and soon it was charged with lightning, '…I can begin'. He then rushed forward as fast as he could.

Naruto had just finished tying up Sasuke and was beginning to lift him over his shoulder when he heard a noise.

A noise he knew well, a noise that he would always remember because it came from an attack that had been used on him twice today.

The sound of a flock of birds chirping….

By the time he turned toward the noise it was too late.

The assailant's Chidori did not pierce through Naruto's body, rather, his hand merely attacked pressed hard against Naruto's chest. Naruto felt electricity running through his body and cried out in pain before falling over flat on his back. His body was paralyzed. He could not move his arms or legs. He was at his attacker's mercy. He lifted his head and looked at the man who had attacked him and could not believe his eyes.

"K-Kakashi-sensei?", he said shocked by the look in the man's eyes, "Why?", he said.

"Why? Because it needs to be done and should have been done a long time ago!", Kakashi said to the blonde, "Naru-no, no, the time has come to end this charade, KYUUBI", he addressed his "student", "I tried to keep an open mind all of these years. I tried to think of you in the way the Yondaime, my sensei, wished me, wished everyone, to see you as.", He continued, "But I can no longer continue denying what you are, I cannot deny what you have done, and I will not deny of what you WILL do if you are allowed to live any longer! For the good of the village, you must die."

Naruto took all of this in with immense shock and then realized what he should have known all along.

"You to huh?" he asked. "I should have known, I should have seen the signs, the choosing of favorites, the lack of training, the fact that you taught Sasuke your prized technique", he said coldly, "you wanted me dead just like those idiotic villagers do. You only see me as a mere scapegoat to take your pain and anger out on", he laughed, "you're an even bigger fool than I expected" he finished.

Kakashi kicked the side of Naruto's face. "Shut up monster!", he yelled, "you have no right to insult anyone in the village, let alone me, after what you did, after you took my teammate, Rin, and my sensei from me!", he growled.

Naruto laughed. "I wonder what they would say if they were here now", he said and stared at the clouds with a face as if he was in deep thought, "I don't know about your teammate, but I bet dad wouldn't be too happy with your decision."

Kakashi, who was busy cutting Sasuke's binds, froze and looked at Naruto in shock.

"H-how do you…?" he began asking when Naruto interrupted him.

"Oh please, it really wasn't that difficult to decipher" he said in an annoyed voice. "I've seen pictures of the man for Christ's sake and even Ero-sennin told me I looked just like him, not to mention the fact that he taught me dear old dad's original jutsu, a jutsu even _you_ couldn't master!", he continued, "Besides, who else would the Yondaime seal Kyuubi into other than his own flesh and blood? Another villager's child? HA! He would never cause that kind pain to anyone; he would want to bear the burden himself." He lifted his head and took in his traitorous sensei's shock and smirked before continuing, "I figured that out all on my own and when I confronted Baa-chan about it, she confirmed it. In fact, I was supposed to receive my inheritance a few days ago but teme over there", he nodded towards Sasuke, "decided to throw a fit and run off and take the easy path in order to gain the power he so craves." He looked at Sasuke again with a look of mock pity. "Pitiful, isn't it? How his obsession with revenge continues to eat away at his sanity, and soon, so very soon, there will be nothing sane left going on inside his tiny little mind", Naruto said laughing almost maniacally at the so-called prodigy's suffering in the personal hell of his own creation.

After he was done laughing he sighed, "Anyway, back to the topic at hand, I doubt my father would condone your actions and mom would probably castrate you where you stood. That's right I know about her to!" he spat at the Cyclops, seeing his shock, "I know that I acquired her taste in pranks and her short temper as well as my more…sadistic nature", he continued smirking.

Kakashi looked at his former student with a look of shock and anger. "Don't compare yourself to them!" he shouted, "You are nothing like them and you never will be!"

Naruto laughed, "You know as well as I do that what you just said isn't true. You know that I carry traits of both of my parents. You know that when you look at me, you see your deceased sensei and his wife. But most importantly, you know that your hate for me extends to my mother as well, because your ego made you think that the only family dad ever needed was _you_!", he spat the last word with every ounce of venom he could muster.

Kakashi was even more shocked than before. Naruto noticed this and continued. "Still crying over daddy's, death are you?", he said in a voice of mock sympathy, "Of course you are. What a weak little man you are", he said laughing again.

Kakashi glared at Naruto, "Shut up! You know nothing about my father!" he spat.

"No, I don't suppose I do.", Naruto said smirking, "But I do know what you call someone who turns their back on the present and lives in the past", he smirked and said, "Cowards….or fools if you prefer", and laughed.

Kakashi stomped on Naruto's chest. "I said shut up!", he growled.

"Deny it all you want, it changes nothing!" Naruto laughed while breathing deeply and coughing from the pain, "You cannot deny what you are, a pathetic little man who lives in the past because he can't handle the present or future", Naruto said before laughing.

Kakashi kicked Naruto again and went back to Sasuke and finished freeing him. The cyclopean then took out a soldier pill and made him swallow it.

After a few minutes, Sasuke woke up.

"Where am I?", he asked tiredly. Memories suddenly flooded back into his mind and immediately jumped up. "Where's Naruto? What happened?" he asked franticly.

"You lost, simple as that", a familiar voice said. Sasuke looked at the source of the voice and saw Naruto lying down, unable to move.

Sasuke scoffed and said, "Right, as if a dobe like you could defeat an Uchiha elite like me", he said in an arrogant tone.

"Oh but it's true old friend, every word, my Rasengan sent you flying straight into the statue of your ancestor over there" he gestured toward the statue, "and if you still don't believe me, look at the mark your chest where my attack grinded into you."

Sasuke turned toward the statue and, sure enough, there was a crater in the leg of the statue. When he looked at his chest he saw a circular burn that seemed to have grinded through the skin around it.

"But how?", he asked under his breath.

"You underestimated me, something you do quite often when it comes to fighting someone", Naruto said.

"Sasuke", Kakashi interjected, "I gave a soldier pill to revive you and give you just enough chakra to use one more Chidori."

Sasuke looked at his sensei. "But why-?", Kakashi interrupted "so you can kill _him_," he pointed to Naruto, "and gain the power you need without having to leave the village". Kakashi continued, "Orochimaru can't teach you how to use the Mangekyo", he lifted up his headband and showed Sasuke his own Mangekyo, which resembled a pinwheel, "but I can."

Sasuke thought for a moment.

What Kakashi said was true; the Snake Sannin had no knowledge on how to use the more advanced sharingan. If he returned to Konoha, the Council would most likely pardon him because he is the last loyal Uchiha in the village. Besides, this way he would not have to give his body to Orochimaru. Sasuke decided to agree with Kakashi.

"Fine I'll come back willingly, but you had better be serious about teaching me", he said coldly.

Kakashi nodded and gestured toward Naruto. "You have my word. Now kill this monster so we can go."

Sasuke was confused. "Monster?", he asked.

"I'll explain it all later", he said in an annoyed voice.

Sasuke nodded and walked over to Naruto and stared at him.

"So this is it? This is how I die. At your pitiful hands", Naruto thought aloud.

"Pretty much", Sasuke said with a malicious grin on his face.

"Well before I go, let me tell you something", Naruto's face turned serious, "This decision will change nothing. You will NEVER be able to kill Itachi! I know this and I've only met the man once! He is more powerful than you could ever hope to be! The only thing you have ensured is that you are just like him", Naruto laughed once again.

Sasuke growled and kicked Naruto's face. "Shut up! I am nothing like him!", he snarled.

"Oh but you are", Naruto said smirking; "You just haven't realized it yet."

Sasuke charged up his Chidori, "Time to die loser."

"So it would seem", Naruto said thoughtfully but then became serious, "but mark my words, I will get out of this! If there is away to cheat death, I will find it! And even if I can't escape, I will wait for you in hell when you fail to kill your brother and die by his hands. You and Cyclops there can look forward to spending eternity in the deepest circle of hell, Treachery, where traitors suffer alongside the devil himself, and when your torment begins I will be there, laughing at your broken form, telling you 'I told you so'. One way or another I'll be seeing you both very, very soon" Naruto said and then laughed out loud.

"DIE!" Sasuke shouted and shoved his Chidori into Naruto's heart.

Naruto cried out in pain and then coughed up a fountain of blood. But somehow, despite his heart being destroyed, he found the strength to look at Sasuke and Kakashi and say "You…will…pay…for this", he coughed up more blood, "both…of you…will…be certain…of…that…"

And then the light left his eyes.

Sasuke pulled his arm out of Naruto's chest and he felt a strange sensation in his eyes. It didn't burn exactly, but it felt…uncomfortable.

The sensation quickly stopped. He looked into the blood and saw his reflection. His eyes resembled intersecting ellipses.

"Good", Kakashi said, "you have awakened your Mangekyo", he looked at Narutos lifeless corpse. "Now we just have to bury this body" he said. He dragged Naruto's body near the cliff side, removed the necklace Tsunade gave the boy and backed up while making several hand seals. "Earth Release: Rock Lodging Destruction!" he shouted. A large portion of the Cliffside came crashing down on top of Naruto, effectively burying him.

"Now let's get going", he said but turned to see Sasuke passed out because of the amount of Chakra it took to use the Chidori. He lifted Sasuke over his shoulder and began the long run back to the village.

Unbeknownst to the cyclopean jonin, someone else was watching this exchange.

In a nearby tree a head slowly emerged from the trunk. Half of its face was white, the other black.

'This isn't **good**', the head thought in two separate voices, '**The** Kyuubi Jinchuuriki **is dead, Leader**-sama is going **to be furious when** **he** finds out', the head shuddered at the thought before sinking back inside the tree where it had emerged from.

**In Naruto's Mindscape**

Naruto floated on his back in an endless blackness that surrounded him.

All was quiet at first.

But then a deep voice spoke.

A voice Naruto knew well.

Kyuubi's voice.

Kyuubi's cage and seal appeared in the mindscape with the beast staring at the drifting child.

"**So this is it? This is how we end, through betrayal. Stabbed in the back by an idiot who cannot tell the difference between a kunai and the scroll that contains it. It looks like the villagers are going to get what they wanted all along in the end."** Kyuubi said in a bored tone, he figured this would happen eventually. Humans fear what they do not understand. Fear leads to hate, hate leads to anger, anger leads to violence, and violence leads to…well you get the idea.

"No" a voice said almost too quiet to hear.

Kyuubi looked at the only source that the voice could have come from, his vessel, Naruto Uzumaki Namikaze.

"**What?"** Kyuubi asked the boy.

"No" Naruto said again, "no, no, no, no, NO!" he screamed.

"It cannot end like this, it WILL NOT end this way, I will not die at the hands of idiots and fools, my life will not end at their hands, I won't give them the satisfaction!" he shouted before struggling to, and eventually being able to, stand.

There was still so much he had to do, a whole life he had to live.

A promise he had to fulfill.

A dream he still had to accomplish.

A girl whom he loved and longed to see again.

'It cannot end here!', he thought.

Kyuubi was surprised at his host's anger and determination. "**It's a bit late to decide that now isn't it kit?" **He told the boy.

Naruto glared at the beast. "Nothing is certain, there must be a way to escape this, there HAS to be!"

He looked into the fox's eyes waiting for the biju to respond.

Kyuubi thought for a moment. Was there a way? Did he, the mightiest of the biju, know an answer to that?

"**Death is inescapable; no one can escape it, not even I**. He growled at the boys tone, **Nothing can save us short of—"**

And then the fox remembered.

There was a way.

It would be painful and there was no guarantee it would work.

But if it did…

"Nothing short of what?" Naruto asked, annoyed the biju stopped mid-sentence.

Kyuubi continued, "**I think I have a possible solution to our mutual problem."**

"Go on."

"**There is something I can do, but it will be difficult"**, Kyuubi sighed before continuing, "**I carry the power to mutate living beings. I can change the beings genetic code so that they will become more powerful and be able to perform feats that are considered impossible by human, even demon standards."**

Naruto caught on "like returning from the dead" he thought aloud.

Kyuubi nodded, "**Among other things."**

Naruto was confused "Other things?" he asked.

"**Yes. What will change and what will remain is always different depending on the person or otherwise, because no two being's genes are the same. In the past I charged others with eternal servitude in exchange for this…but, considering the circumstances, I will bestow this gift upon you for free."**

Naruto was intrigued but wanted a firm idea of what the fox was talking about.

"You have used this on others?" he asked.

Kyuubi nodded, "**Yes. Centuries ago, I offered mortal beings this power in exchange for their loyalty**", he told the blonde, "**The effect was always different, but the result was always the same; the person became more powerful than before. I only had a dozen or so at any one time**", he finished.

Naruto was confused, "Where are these servants now?" he asked the biju.

Kyuubi sighed, "**This was before the Sage Of Six Paths passed his teachings on to others**", he explained, "**As the years passed, other mortals became aware of what I was doing and became consumed with fear. After learning how to control chakra, they rose up against me. Though my servants were stronger, they were heavily outnumbered and were defeated by the armies primordial shinobi, though not without losing most of their forces. Though they were exhausted and no match for me otherwise, I decided to retreat. I had been living in seclusion ever since. I haven't given anyone this kind of power since the day my servants were slaughtered**", he finished.

Naruto thought about this for a moment. A dozen beings able to hold their own against entire armies? This was indeed, an intriguing offer. "Something like this doesn't come free and it certainly doesn't come without risks", he finished.

Kyuubi nodded, "**Yes, such a large mutation would require a great deal of my power to perform. I have no idea of what kind effect of it will have on you, the person I have been sealed into, and there is no guarantee that it will work. Even if it does work, it might not bring you back."**

"Really? Tell me more…" Naruto said intrigued.

**In Konoha**

Kakashi had just arrived at the main gates of Konoha carrying Sasuke and was immediately greeted by a group of Medic Ninja and a group of other civilians and shinobi, including one Sakura Haruno. Said kunoichi's expression of relief at seeing her sensei changed immediately to frantic worry at seeing the injured and unconscious Sasuke.

"SASUKE-KUN!" she shouted running towards Kakashi who handed Sasuke over to the medics.

"Don't worry Sakura he's fine, just a little banged up." Kakashi told his pink haired student.

Sakura immediately felt relief as she heard these words but continued to follow the Medic Ninja to the hospital with Sasuke in tow.

Kakashi sighed and turned toward the nearby ANBU who just appeared.

"I need to speak to the Hokage", he told the ANBU, who nodded as they both Shunshin'd to the Hokages office.

**Naruto's Mindscape**

Kyuubi had just explained the entire mutation process to Naruto, who was considering the consequences.

"So let me get this straight" he said breaking the momentary silence, "You take my DNA, twist it around like a kitten with a ball of yarn, and either I come out perfectly fine or utterly destroyed and become something inhuman either way?" he concluded.

Kyuubi nodded** "That's the gist of it, yes."**

Naruto thought for a moment.

Would it be worth it?

What would he become?

What would change?

What would stay the same?

Would he still be himself or someone, or something, else?

Would the people he cared about want to be around him?

Would they shun and fear him like the other villagers did?

"**Hurry up and choose kit"**, Kyuubi said in an impatient voice, **"I can't postpone our deaths much longer."**

"Will I still be human?" Naruto asked after another moment of silence.

"**If it works you'll be so much more, maybe even a god amongst men",** Kyuubi answered.

Naruto thought of the one he loved more than anything and, after another moment of thinking, decided.

'As long as I can see her again, the risk is worth it. Besides what have I got to lose?' he thought to himself.

"All right", he said solemnly before looking into the biju's eyes, "What do I have to do?"

Kyuubi grinned, **"Good, lie down on your back in front of my cage and I'll take care of the rest."**

Naruto did so and looked up at Kyuubi.

"I hope you're right about this", he said sighing.

'**So do I'**, Kyuubi thought before continuing, **"A word of warning kit, this is going to hurt A LOT."**

Naruto nodded, "I can take it", he said in an emotionless voice.

"**I hope so"**, Kyuubi said as a large pool of red chakra slowly seeped out through the bars of the beast's cage and surrounded Naruto.

"**It begins."**

The moment the Chakra began seeping into Naruto, the screaming started.

**Konoha: The Hokage's Office**

Tsunade sat at her desk, staring at Kakashi who had just arrived a few moments beforehand, alongside the other members of the Konoha Twelve (minus Choji, Neji, Kiba, Sasuke, who were in the hospital, and Sakura who had refused to leave Sasuke's side), all of whom Kakashi had asked Tsunade to summon for this meeting as well. Other than Kakashi, each person in the room (who had a visible expression) showed signs of worry when they noticed Naruto was not here with them and was not seen arriving with Kakashi at the front gates.

Tsunade was especially worried, along with her apprentice, Shizune (holding Tonton), and her old teammate, Jiraiya, standing on either side of her.

"Kakashi, why have you called everyone here? And why isn't Naruto here?" Tsunade asked.

"I thought it would be best for everyone to be here when I deliver the news", Kakashi said in a feigned sad voice.

"What news?" the Slug Sannin asked, her heart beating painfully as she silently prayed that her surrogate son was alright, but she, alongside her teammate and apprentice and the other members of the Konoha Twelve, still feared the worst.

Kakashi took a deep breath before continuing, "Sasuke has been successfully retrieved, but…", he paused looking away from the Hokage.

"But what?", she asked.

"Sasuke…he entered a crazed frenzy because of the curse mark and ended up fighting Naruto and by the time I arrived…", he paused again.

"By the time you arrived what?" Tsunade asked.

Kakashi said nothing.

Tsunade slammed her fists down loudly onto her desk, "WHAT HAPPENED!" she yelled.

Kakashi flinched and, after taking another deep breath, continued.

"By the time I arrived I…I was too late", he said sadly, "Naruto is dead…I…I couldn't stop Sasuke in time", he finished his voice breaking at _exactly_ the right moment.

The whole world seemed to stop for a moment as everyone took in this shocking news.

"No", Tsunade gasped. Kakashi sadly nodded and whipped out the necklace she had given the blonde and placed it on the desk in front of her.

"I'm afraid so", he said, "Sasuke killed Naruto before passing out from exhaustion. The battle weakened the Cliffside and caused a landslide that buried him moments after Sasuke had used the Chidori", he pointed to the necklace, "That was all I could recover."

At these words Jiraiya, immediately brought out the Toad Summoning Contract. 'There's one way to know for certain', he thought as he opened it. Among the names of those who had signed it, those that were red were the people who were still alive. Black meant the person was dead. Jiraiya skimmed through the names and found that only his own name was red, the Yondaime's and Naruto's were black.

"Jiraiya?" Tsunade asked.

"His name on the contract is black. He…he really is gone", the Toad Sannin said in a sad voice.

Everyone looked at Kakashi's quarter-revealed face and then at Jiraiya's, trying desperately to find any ounce of deceit on either face. When they found none, everyone in the room allowed the crushing pain to take them.

Lee immediately broke down crying loudly, unashamed, while Tenten consoled him, struggling, and failing, to keep back her own tears.

Shikamaru looked away from the others, hiding his tears, 'troublesome blonde' he thought while silently blaming himself for bringing Naruto along on the mission and for not being there to stop Sasuke from killing said blonde.

Shino had no visible reaction, but underneath his unemotional exterior, he was holding back an oceans worth of grief.

The two who took the news the worst were, Hinata and, surprisingly, Ino.

Hinata gasped and then, after a short pause, collapsed only to have Shino catch her before she hit the ground, holding her while she cried. 'No! No, please no!' she pleaded inside her mind.

Ino, to everyone's surprise, had collapsed onto her knees, covered her eyes with her hands, and began crying into them. 'I-I don't understand' she thought to herself, 'why am I crying so much? Why does it hurt so much? Why does it feel like my heart has been ripped out?'

But she knew the answer.

Deep down she had known ever since the day Naruto had walked into her family's flower shop two weeks before the Chuunin Exam Finals were to take place.

_Flashback_

Ino Yamanaka was sitting at the reception counter her family's flower shop sighing while reading a magazine.

She was, for the lack of a better word, bored. She was angry too, considering her parents had made her watch the store on her day off. Oh, and the fact that no one had come into the store since it opened didn't help at all.

Ino sighed, 'Why did mom and dad have to have plans _today_?' she asked herself, 'Great my whole day has been wasted', she sighed again before saying, in an exasperating voice "This is the most boring day of my life!"

Just then the bell ringed, signaling that someone had entered the store. She looked up and her eyes widened in shock in response to who had just walked in.

There stood Naruto Uzumaki, in all of his glory, holding a wilted potted plant in both hands.

'I can't believe I'm doing this', he thought to himself as he walked up to the counter. He wasn't exactly fond of asking Konoha's _second_ biggest queen of gossip for help and was afraid she would make a scene out of it.

After a few moments, Ino had gotten over her shock and asked the question clouding every inch of her mind.

"Naruto? What are you doing here and why are you carrying that?" she asked confused.

Naruto placed the plant onto the counter. "I think this one needs help", he said.

Ino stared at him. "This one? You mean you have more?" she asked.

"Yeah so…" he said.

"So…since when do you garden?" she asked annoyed at his answer.

"Since always", he answered simplely, "now can you help or not?" he asked annoyed.

Ino rolled her eyes and then examined the potted plant in front of her. "The soil is too moist" she said, "you watered it too much and too often" she finished looking at him like it was obvious.

"God dammit all to hell! I should have known. I'm always worried about under watering while on missions", he said angrily. He then looked up at Ino's shocked face, "Pardon my language", he amended quickly, clearing his throat.

Ino smiled and rolled her eyes, "Forget it. I have some special fertilizer in the back that could help", she offered.

He smiled back and gestured forward, "lead the way."

Naruto followed her into the back of the shop and watched as she searched through the shelves.

Breaking the silence Ino asked, "So how's Sasuke-kun?"

Naruto rolled his eyes, "Still arrogant, still wallowing in self-pity, and still being an idiot as always" he answered and then jumped back when Ino turned and took a swing at him for that last comment.

"Sasuke-kun isn't an idiot!" she shouted.

Naruto smirked, "Yes he is, all you have to do is look at him from a non-fan girl point of view."

Ino growled and Naruto laughed at her pouty expression. "You're so cute when you're angry."

These words brought Ino out of her angry glare and caused her to blush while she looked at her feet.

"R-really?" she asked uncertainly.

"Yes", he answered smiling, "very cute."

Ino blushed even more and went back to looking through the shelves.

Naruto watched as she arched her back while reaching for the top shelves.

'Damn she's gorgeous', he thought as he caught himself staring at her, 'wait, what the fuck did I just think?'

Ino turned her head to look behind her and saw his face as he stared at her. She smiled and decided to tease him back.

"And just what are _you _staring at?" she asked in the most innocent voice she could muster, swaying her hips slightly while putting her index finger on her lip and batting her eyelashes at him.

He blushed and said "Umm, n-nothing i-it's just that you're so beautiful", he spluttered and then mentally kicked himself for saying that.

Ino blushed at an intensity that would put Hinata to shame.

"D-do you really think so?" she asked stuttering slightly.

"Y-yeah, yeah I do, I really do" he answered.

She smiled, for some reason, Ino felt like she was on top of the world; Naruto had just made her day. What she did next surprised both of them. She walked up to him and kissed him on the cheek and said "thank you", before her thoughts caught up to her actions. They both blushed and Ino mumbled an apology before looking through the shelves again.

'Now that I think about it, he is pretty cute', she thought, 'wait did I just think that?' she asked herself.

After a few awkward moments of silence, Naruto asked Ino something he had always wondered about both her and Sakura.

"Ino?" he asked.

"Yes Naruto?" she responded still looking through the shelves.

He took a deep breath before asking, "Why do you fawn over Sasuke?"

Ino froze.

For the first time in her life, she asked herself the same question. She wasn't sure how to answer that. "Because he's talented and he's hot". That would be the shallow yet honest answer that Sasuke's other fan girls, including Sakura, would have answered. But to Ino, it seemed to shallow and pathetic. When she realized that she was the exact same way, she began crying. She thought she was different from the others.

"Ino?" Naruto asked shocked at seeing tears in her eyes. He walked forward and put his hands on her shoulders. "Ino, what's wrong? Why are you crying?"

Ino looked at him with tears rolling down her face. "I don't know", she said, "I d-don't know why I l-like Sasuke. I-I've never asked myself that b-before", she continued, "I t-think its b-because he's cute and t-talented but that seems so shallow", she cried even harder before saying, "I used to think I was unique and special, d-different than the other girls. B-but the truth is, I'm no d-different than they a-are, I'm just as p-pathetic and sh-shallow as th-they are", she finished.

Naruto was shocked and felt horrible for asking her. He looked into her tear-filled eyes and couldn't stand to see this angelic being before him in so much pain. Without any hesitation, he closed the distance and wrapped his arms around her.

"Shh, Ino, Shh" he whispered to her, "I'm sorry for asking you, it's okay, don't cry, please don't cry", he crooned.

Ino was shocked, but returned his embrace.

"I-I'm s-sorry", she stuttered, "I j-just hate k-knowing how p-pitiful and w-weak I r-really am", she explained weakly.

Naruto growled "Stop it!" he said angrily.

Ino looked at him before looking away and began crying more 'he thinks I'm pathetic too' she thought sadly.

Naruto grabbed her chin between his thumb and index finger and brought it up so she had to look at him.

"You listen to me" he said seriously, "you are NOT weak, you are NOT pathetic, and you are NOT like the other girls. You are a kind, caring, beautiful young woman who deserves love and happiness. You are above those other girls. They are blind fanatics who are too STUPID to realize their own useless idiocy!" he shouted.

Ino stared at him in shock, "B-but I-I'm one of those g-girls." She reminded him. Naruto shook his head.

"You _were _one", he corrected, "but only because you were caught in this _fad_", he said the last word with disgust, "But _you_ are not the problem", he continued, "_He _is. He's too caught up in his own self-pity too realize that almost every girl he meets wants him. Even a goddess like yourself", he took a deep breath before continuing, "You wonder why I call him an idiot? _That's_ why." Naruto finished.

Ino was both shocked and deeply touched at his words. "G-goddess? Me?", she asked hesitantly.

He smiled and nodded, "Yes Ino, you are more beautiful all of the flowers inside and outside of this store combined…I just never noticed it until now." he finished with a firm conviction.

Ino had never felt so happy and appreciated in her entire life. She couldn't contain herself any more.

She wrapped her arms around his neck, closed her eyes, and kissed him passionately with as much force as she could muster, which was enough to knock them both to the ground with her on top of him.

Naruto's eyes widened for a moment in shock before, he to, closed his eyes and kissed her back just as passionately.

Their lips grinded and moved against each other's and, soon, their tongues entered the fray, each fought for dominancy against the other.

'She tastes amazing!', he thought to himself tasting a flavor that was almost floral on her tongue.

'He tastes like…miso ramen?' she thought, 'mmm…not bad!', she then deepened the kiss.

They passionately made out on the floor for well over thirty minutes before reluctantly pulling apart.

They stared at each other with blank stares before they both blushed while gasping for air.

"Sorry", Ino said.

Naruto smiled at her "Don't be", he told her.

Ino then noticed a small package lying next to them noticed it was the same fertilizer she was trying to find for him. "Found it", she said while blushing. Naruto laughed, "So you have."

The two then got up and dusted themselves off before heading back to the reception desk.

"So…what do I owe you?", Naruto asked.

Ino giggled before pulling him in for another passionate kiss that lasted for about five minutes before they broke apart.

"That'll do" she said while grinning.

"Are you sure?" Naruto asked.

"Definitely", she answered, "especially since you helped cheer me up and you gave me the perfect first kiss." she said smiling.

Naruto smirked, "well, in that case", he said smiling slyly, "keep the change."

She smiled and licked her lips seductively, "oh I will Naruto-kun, I will" she promised.

Naruto picked up his plant and the bag and fertilizer.

"Umm Ino-chan, do you want to go out with me sometime?" he asked hopefully.

Ino made a face as if she was in deep thought, "Well, I'll have to think about it….okay!" she said smiling, "how about this Friday at eight?" she offered.

"Sounds good, see you then Angel", Naruto said smiling and as he left Ino blew him a goodbye kiss while blushing at the nickname he gave her.

Naruto walked down the street with a new spring in his step smiling a very goofy smile on his face despite himself. 'I have a feeling that my life is going to get a whole lot better from here on out', he thought to himself. All of a sudden a voice at the back of his mind (not Kyuubi) asked '_what about Sakura-chan_?' 'Who?' he thought back while grinning even more.

At the same time, Ino sat at the counter and began daydreaming. 'Angel? Me?' she thought, pausing before continuing, 'I take it back. This isn't the most boring day of my life. It's the GREATEST day of my life.' She thought while cheering internally. A voice at the back of her mind asked '_what about Sasuke-kun?_' 'Who?' she thought back while smiling.

An hour later, when her parents came back, they noticed how immensely cheerful she was. When they asked her what she was so happy about, she simply shrugged and said, "It's a nice day."

_Flashback End_

'I loved him', Ino thought to herself, 'we only went out a few times but I still loved him and now I'll never get a chance to tell him.' she mourned, 'Naruto I'm so sorry', and she began to cry harder.

Everyone was shocked by Ino's reaction, neither Ino nor Naruto had bothered to mention that they were romantically involved, not because they were ashamed, but because it just never came up.

The others didn't bother asking her, now just wasn't the right moment.

Kakashi was shocked at everyone's reactions and, for a brief moment, felt guilty.

Key word being "brief".

'They must still be under his control', he thought, 'hopefully they will return to normal in time.'

After a few moments, Tsunade grabbed the necklace and got up from her chair and faced the window, so that no one could see her face.

"I…I see", she said, her voice trembling slightly, "Is that all?"

"Yes, Hokage-sama", Kakashi answered.

"Then you are all dismissed", she said.

After everyone left, Shino helping Hinata and Shikamaru helping Ino, there was a moment of silence.

"Tsunade-hime?" Jiraiya said, approaching her, "Are you-?" but before he could finished Tsunade threw herself at him and embraced him while crying into his chest. Her sadness was so great that the genjutsu used to mask her true age faded away, revealing an old woman who looked so frail, that she would break at the slightest touch (quite a shocking sight considering her legendary strength). Jiraiya, though shocked, wrapped his arms around her and let the building tears he had hidden flow down his face silently. Shizune also began crying, barely keeping her grip on Tonton. Surprisingly, the little pig was crying too, small tears falling down her face. The four stood in the office mourning the death of Naruto Uzumaki, the boy who had changed their lives irreversibly.

**The Valley Of The End: a few hours later**

The valley that marked the site of two battles, the first between the Shodaime Hokage, Hashirama Senju, and Madara Uchiha and the second between Naruto Uzumaki and Sasuke Uchiha, was silent except for the falling rain and thunder heard in the distance.

I pile of rubble that had been the grave of the late nine-tails Jinchuuriki was also silent.

But then a low rumbling sound was heard from the makeshift tomb. Slowly the rumbling grew louder and the rocks and rubble began to shake.

Then a monstrous roar was heard as the debris was blasted away by a source of immense strength.

When the dust cleared, a lone figure was standing in its place. This figure wore a shirt, long pants, average ninja foot wear, fingerless gloves, and a large trench coat, all of which were black. On the back of the trench coat was a red symbol of the Uzumaki clan with what looked like nine red tails radiating off of it. The figure had spiky blonde hair and three whisker shaped birth marks on each cheek.

The impossible had been achieved; Naruto Uzumaki had returned from beyond the grave.

"**Yes!**", Kyuubi thought, "**The transformation is a success!**" The beast said eagerly inside the boys mind.

Naruto walked over to the water and looked at his own reflection.

He looked good. He looked pretty much the same as before only taller and more muscular. His hair was longer and spikier. His baby fat was completely gone and his whisker marks were more profound.

He felt relief at his appearance but then saw and felt his skin shift with strange black and dark red colorations appearing where the shifting had occurred before quickly disappearing. While quick, it had felt uncomfortable when it happened, though.

'I look like shit', he thought to himself.

Kyuuni chuckled, "**How do feel?**" he asked.

Naruto looked over his body before looking up and smiling sinisterly while saying one word out loud.

"Fantastic."

A/N: That's it for the Prologue. Sorry it took so long. What do you think?

What do about the flashback to the beginning Ino and Naruto's relationship? Too much? Too little? I thought their romance should begin in a way that fit their personalities: sudden and spontaneous.

Comment on anything you think needs improvement or change.

Kakashi buried Naruto's corpse so that there would still be a body left to retrieve, but he had an excuse not to bring it back. (This is directed to those of you who are wondering why Kakashi didn't burn Naruto's corpse in order dispose of the body.)


	3. Chapter 1: The Prototype

**Hi everyone! Sorry I haven't updated in…Christ eight months? Sorry; I've had a large amount of writers block just for this one chapter and I have college work as well. I've got Ch. 2 done as well! I'll wait a week until I upload it so I can read the reviews for this chapter, so send me a bunch! I've also started two of my other story ideas.**

**Now then…I feel obligated to respond to a few of the reviews that were given to me.**

**HebiTsukai: Um…thanks?**

**NoLifeKing666: Thank you. I'm glad you approve. Also, I'm not very good with lemons and that sort of thing so it is unlikely that anything like that will be shown. Sorry.**

**Revan the Wicked: Hmm…I was planning to add other girls to the Harem…I'll see what I can do.**

**Oathkeeper-Ryu & eikka492: You guys thought the romance was a little quick? Yeah, that was the idea! I can't start a relationship the way you'd like because I had to show it's start within the chapter and I didn't want to make an enormous flashback and make it that complex. Sorry to say this, but pretty much all the romance in this story is going to start off quickly. Maybe I'll take it slower in any other stories I write but not this one. Sorry again and thanks for the reviews!**

**Doom Marine 54: Sounds like? I **_**am**_** getting rid of canon Naruto! I **_**hate**_** how Naruto is portrayed in the series. The main character of the story should be on top and one of the strongest! Well…he is now but it took to fucking long for him to get that way! So yes; I **_**do**_** hate canon Naruto, mostly because of his stupidity! A certain degree of cluelessness is fine but not all the cocksucking, motherfucking time! Also, I warned people not to read the story if they were fans of the rest of team seven, not because they're going to be heavily bashed (they won't be…too much) but because by the end of the story, they're probably going to meet an unpleasant and violent end (probably)!**

**HolyKnight5: Good God that idea is…brilliant! I never would never have thought of that on my own! I not sure if I can use it in my story in it's entirety, but I'll see what I can do. Thanks!**

**Miner249er: What can I say? Thank you for your constant support. I don't think anyone besides me supports this story more. So thank you…my greatest supporter and number one fan (I think)! Also your story idea sounds good, though I know nothing about that particular series.**

**Now, onto the story!**

Disclaimer: I own neither Naruto nor Prototype, but my ideas belong to me.

Ch. 1: The Prototype

**Konoha: Hokages Office: One year later**

The Godaime Hokage, Tsunade Senju, sat at her desk facing off against an enemy that even the mightiest of Kages fear…paperwork. Tsunade sighed heavily; the last year had brought a lot of paperwork for her as well as grief for almost everyone in Konoha.

She thought back to how everyone had reacted to Naruto's death.

The villagers, for the most part, were celebrating the "demon's" death and were praising the Uchiha as a hero. The celebrating stopped when Anko Mitarashi, having gained sympathy for Naruto's status as an outcast like herself, had detonated multiple explosive tags within each group and Tsunade had those participating in said celebrations got to spend time with Ibiki Morino in the ANBU Interrogation Center.

Needless to say, that shut them all up pretty quickly.

Speaking of Anko, her actions had caught the eye of Iruka Umino who was happy someone was stopping the civilians and shinobi who hated his favorite student and little brother figure. The two had since become friends since Naruto's death, although Anko's psychotic, blood-loving nature did creep him out _quite_ a bit at first.

A few civilians, however, were greatly saddened by Naruto's death. This included Teuchi and Ayame Ichiraku. The father-daughter pair cared greatly about Naruto as he was always their favorite customer and Ayame saw him as the little brother she never had. They refused to serve anyone who was happy with the blonde's death along with anyone who praised Sasuke. This once got the two involved in an argument with a group of drunken villagers'. The leader of the group had demanded to be served ramen in honor of "the hero who killed the Kyuubi". Ayame countered this argument by dumping a boiling pot of water on the drunk's head while then proceeding to repeatedly beat the said drunk with the same pot before he was sent to the hospital for severe burns and a concussion among other things.

The next group that tried to argue ended up in the hospital with stab wounds from the kitchen knives Ayame threw at them.

After that no one else bothered the two while those who had were telling everyone to choose their words carefully around the "psycho bitch".

To further honor their appreciation to their favorite customer, as well as to spite the other villagers, they created a new ramen type and added it to the menu as the "Naruto Uzumaki Deluxe Ramen Special".

Naruto's death had also caused the Sandaime's law of secrecy to be repealed and soon all of the younger generation of the village knew that Naruto carried the Kyuubi within him, with many hoping to turn them against the, now deceased, boy.

This failed spectacularly.

For the most part, the members of the Konoha 12 (now 11) had not turned against Naruto and had gained a new level of respect for the blonde.

Choji, having been unconscious in the hospital at the time, did not immediately hear the news until Shikamaru had informed him upon awakening. Once he had heard however he had shed tears for his friend's death. To his teammates and sensei's shock, the Akimichi clan heir did not want to eat anything upon being released, saying it would be a solid testament to the loss of the only person who had ever beaten him in a ramen eating contest.

Kiba had also taken the news hard, despite his mother's view on the young blonde. When he was released from the hospital and had heard about the villagers celebrating he and Akamaru would beat the living shit out of anyone who he saw doing so, even his fellow clan members.

Lee had taken the view of his sensei, that Naruto's cheerful attitude, despite the hatred the villager's, had made his "flames of youth" burn even brighter than his own and vowed to one day reach Naruto's level of "youthfulness".

When Neji had heard the news from Tenten, he had actually burst into tears, not caring about his pride. Neji, alongside Hinata, had promised to honor Naruto's memory by finding away to finish what Naruto had started, finding away to get the Hyuuga Clan to ban the use of the Caged Bird Seal that was used on the branch members of the clan. Along with Hinata, he also had Tenten to support him. The two teammates had grown very close during the past year and, eventually, fell in love with each other. This, of course, caused Guy and Lee to burst into tears when they found out and praised about how youthful the two lovers were, so it was a bit of a curse as well as a blessing.

Speaking of Hinata, the shy Hyuuga heiress had been devastated by Naruto's death. For the first six months her worried father had placed guards to watch over her from a distance, fearing she would try to kill herself. With the help of her father, her cousin, Neji, her teammates, Kiba and Shino, her sensei Kurenai, and her little sister Hanabi, Hinata finally started to come out of her depression. She had promised to train harder than ever to become strong like her late crush and began training alongside Neji and her father in order to do so.

The person, who took Naruto's death the hardest, along with Hinata, was Ino. She refused to leave her room for weeks and only came out to eat or visit and bring flowers to Naruto's grave, which she did every day.

It was a simple gravesite. Naruto's body was never recovered from the Valley of the End, so there was no body to be buried, so it was a simple memorial. It read: "_Naruto Uzumaki: the friend and hero who changed countless lives for the better_".

Soon after it was made, it was the subject to multiple defacing incidents. When this happened, many of Naruto's friends would beat the people who did so into a near coma.

If Ino and Hinata (or both) caught someone defacing it, they would drag out the beating slowly and painfully. Once, when one villager decided to _relieve_ himself on the memorial, the two girls beat him into what the staff at the hospital described as an "unrecognizable bloody stain" and then waited for him to wake up in the hospital so they could do it again. The doctors and nurses were too terrified to stop them. The offending villager ended up having nearly every bone in his body broken and suffered a massive amount internal bleeding because of Hinata's Gentile Fist strikes.

Any shinobi found vandalizing the memorial had to deal with an angry Tsunade Senju. After the memorial had been set up, she demoted several Chuunin, Jonin, and even a few ANBU to Genin level. She even sent a few back to the academy! Anyone who tried to argue or justify what they did was thrown in prison or, on a few very intense occasions, were executed for their trouble. The council, mostly the elder and civilian branches, protested this but the Slug Sannin had put her foot down (hard, shattering the floor and causing the entire building to shake) on the issue. Luckily, a good amount of the village's ninja were smart and held no ill feelings towards Naruto and, if they did, didn't voice this opinion aloud.

If, for some reason, the person who vandalized the grave was nowhere near the sight at the time, Kiba and Akamaru would track the person's/people's scent across town, so there was really no way for anyone to get away with it.

Back to Ino, she had also stopped working at her family's store for awhile because it was the place that had brought the two blondes into each other's arms. Since Naruto's death, everyone had learned about her relationship with Naruto and, while shocked, all felt sympathy for her (her friends anyway). Her parents had also learned of this and, while her father Inoichi Yamanaka was glad to see her stop fawning over Sasuke and approved wholeheartedly, her mother, Masami Yamanaka, was outraged at the news of her daughter dating the "Kyuubi brat", blaming said "brat" for her brother's death during the Kyuubi attack.

The woman had tried to introduce her daughter to other boys, all of whom were admirers, thinking she was still under the "monster's" control and believed this would solve the problem. Ino turned them all down (politely, of course) and her mood seemed to get worse.

Despite her husband's advice to let the issue go, Ino's mother had tried to sway her daughter constantly until about four months after Naruto's death, when Ino finally snapped.

_Flashback_

The Yamanaka family had just sat down for dinner when Ino came downstairs her head hung low and her eyes red from crying.

As they ate, Ino's parents tried to get her to open up to them with minimal effort. Finally her Masami sighed and decided to address the problem directly and get it over with.

"Listen Ino", she began, "I know you liked that boy, but there comes a time when a person has to move on", she explained. Her husband, Inoichi, stared at her incredulously with a look that said both "please, for the love of God, do not do this" and "are you bat-shit crazy?" She ignored him.

Ino looked up at her mother for a moment with sad eyes before looking down at her plate again.

"It's not that simple", she muttered, "I don't think this is something I can ever get over not matter how hard I try. I don't think I'm built to deal with this kind of loss."

"Why not?" Masami asked, Inoichi signaling her to drop it but, once again, she ignored him, "There are plenty of other men in the village, better ones too", she continued, unaware of the emotional mine field she was walking into, "Speaking of which, my friend Satomi told me that her son was interested in you today and I thought that-"

"No thank you", Ino interrupted.

That was the breaking point.

Masami slammed her hands onto the table, startling the hell out of her husband and daughter.

"Dammit Ino, I'm tired of this!" she screeched, "what does it take to get you to see that you're better off without him!" she demanded.

Inoichi tried to calm his wife. "Dear don't-"

"No Inoichi,", she yelled, "she needs to hear this." She continued, "Why can't you just except the fact that he's nothing but a monster, the same monster that killed MY brother and YOUR uncle", she ranted, "Yet you still defend him and cry over him, I never would have approved of you dating him anyway if I had known! The best thing for you to do is accept what he was and move on to other-"

That was when she stepped on a mine that set off a chain reaction.

"Mom?" Ino interrupted, "SHUT UP!" she screeched.

Both of Ino's parents were shocked by this. Ino had never before yelled at her mother like this before.

Ino continued, "What do you know about him?" she yelled, "What makes you think you know anything about him? He wasn't a monster; he only hurt people in order to protect others! He always thought of others first and would do anything to make someone he cared about happy!" she continued, "Oh and by the way? When we were together he always treated me like royalty, like a princess, and he never asked anything of me! He said all he wanted was for me to be happy and I always was!" she yelled, tears now rolling down her cheeks, "Now get this through your head! I! LOVED! HIM! I loved him with all of my heart and I always will! My only regret was never being able to tell him! You have no idea what his life was like, so keep your mouth shut about things you don't understand!" she finished, running upstairs to her room crying, leaving her shocked mother and father behind.

"I warned you…" Inoichi told his wife under his breath before heading upstairs to try to console his daughter.

_Flashback End_

After talking to her husband and doing a great deal of soul searching, Masami realized her mistake and was truly ashamed of everything she had ever said or thought about Naruto. She apologized to her daughter and admitted her mistakes and, after a long period of time, finally reconciled with Ino.

Ino and Hinata had grown close over the past year and were very close friends despite Hinata's intense jealousy towards Ino, at first, for being with Naruto the way she dreamed about being with him. In honor of Naruto's memory, they went to his apartment and took everything of value to hide, including his "trophies" from his past adventures which included Mizuki's headband he had asked for from the Hokage after beating the silver haired traitor into an unrecognizable pulp (Naruto had put a slash through the headband as well), a piece of Haku's mask, a written note from Ibiki congratulating him on passing the first exam without answering any questions, the empty container that had once held a healing ointment that Hinata gave him after defeating Kiba (Hinata fainted after finding this), a vial of sand that Naruto had collected sometime after his fight with Gaara, a picture of himself standing with Tsunade, Shizune holding Tonton, and Jiraiya that had been taken on the way back from finding the Slug Sannin and convincing her to come back with them, and finally, an autographed photo of Princess Koyuki Kazehana.

While searching through the apartment Ino found a photo that was taken by one of Naruto's Shadow Clones of herself and Naruto sitting against a tree with Naruto having his arms around her while she sat in his lap. Both of them were smiling.

Ino remembered the day this was taken; it was one of the happiest days of her life. It was also the day he told her his greatest secret…

_Flashback_

It was a beautiful Saturday afternoon and Naruto had prepared a picnic for himself and his beloved girlfriend, Ino, out in an open field on the village outskirts.

When they had finished, Naruto had sealed what was left into a scroll. The two then decided to rest in the shade under a nearby tree. Ino was sitting in her boyfriend's lap with her head resting against his chest; his arms were wrapped around her waist.

After a few moments of silence Naruto looked at her and smiled.

"Comfy Ino-chan?" he asked her.

"Yep", Ino answered smiling up at him.

Naruto noticed her hair had grown a bit longer since he last saw her; she no longer wore it in the bun she usually had since the end of the Chuunin Exam Preliminaries.

"Your hair is longer", he noted.

Ino nodded, "Yeah, I liked it better when it was longer", she explained, "Naruto-kun...?" she began asking but paused uncertainly.

Naruto noticed her hesitation, "Something wrong?" he asked.

She paused before continuing, "Well I was wondering…do you…do you like my hair longer or shorter?"

Naruto laughed, "You're worried about what _I_ would think?"

Ino nodded sheepishly, "Well…yeah, I mean…we are dating and all…and I want to look my best for you…"

He interrupted her with a passionate kiss she soon melted into.

When they parted Naruto continued, "How do you like your hair?"

Ino thought for a moment, "Longer, like it used to be", she decided, "I thought it made me look prettier."

He kissed her again, "Then I like it that way too…besides that ponytail made you look sexy as hell", he said smiling.

She blushed, "Really?" she asked.

Naruto nodded, "Yes", he told her.

Ino pulled herself closer to him and kissed him before she moved her lips toward his ear.

"Then you should see it when I let it down, it's much sexier", she whispered seductively.

Naruto shivered and asked, "Really?"

She giggled, "Trust me, you won't be disappointed", Ino said nibbling at his ear a little.

Naruto shivered more before pulling her face to his and kissing her forcefully. Ino moaned in pleasure.

They pulled apart after ten minutes or so and Ino stared at him.

"Mmm…your more eager today aren't you?" she asked him, smiling and licking her lips.

Naruto laughed, "How can I not be?" he asked, "I am holding an angel after all and it doesn't help that she's such a tease."

Ino blushed and snuggled closer into his chest.

After a while Ino decided to break the silence.

"So…are you going to tell me what happened when you went to find Tsunade-sama?" she asked curiously.

Naruto laughed and began recounting his journey to find the "Legendary Sucker" Tsuande Senju. They hit a snag early in the story when he told Ino about his encounter with the Akatsuki. The organization was recently made known to the public in the Bingo Book. It didn't say much, only that it was an organization composed of S-ranked missing-nins that wore black cloaks with red clouds on them.

"What happened? Were you okay? Did they hurt you?" she asked frantically while looking him over, searching for any injuries.

"Ino-chan calm down", he told her while rubbing her back soothingly, "Ero-sennin drove them off before they could do anything to me, but not before Itachi swatted Sasuke around."

Ino felt sorry for Sasuke, he was banged up pretty badly if the only person who could heal him was Tsunade.

"Itachi…he's Sasuke's brother right?" she asked.

Naruto nodded, "Yeah, Itachi Uchiha is the only other Uchiha clan member still alive", he continued, "Seven years ago, he wiped out his entire clan single handedly in one night and Sasuke's wanted revenge ever since then."

Ino was shocked, "Is he really that powerful?" she asked, amazed.

"I would appear so", Naruto answered, "He defeated Kakashi-sensei without breaking a sweat and caught Sasuke's Chidori with one hand", he shook his head, "It wasn't even a fight."

Ino shock grew even more, "B-but that attack broke through Gaara's sand shield during the Chuunin Exams!"

Naruto nodded "I know…there's something about him…the man's eyes were so intimidating…no amount of regret in them at all." he continued, "He used some sort of genjutsu on Sasuke just by looking into his eyes…the screaming was terrible…"

Ino's looked into her boyfriend's eyes and saw a great deal of sadness in them. She embraced him tightly and said, "I'm so sorry."

He hugged her back and sighed, "It's alright. It's not your fault."

Ino hesitated before continuing, "What happened next?"

Naruto continued, "Ero-sennin showed up and Itachi and his partner took off, Ero-sennin used a jutsu called Toad Mouth Bind and it summoned a giant toad esophagus that covered the entire hallway", he sighed, "He said the trap was inescapable but Itachi burned through it using some sort of black fire, we had to seal the flames and when we opened the scroll when we checked back five days later they were still burning. It took one week before they extinguished", he finished.

Ino's eyes widened, 'could fire burn that long without extinguishing? Then again it was able to break them free', she thought and she remembered her boyfriend mentioning Itachi having a partner.

"Naruto-kun?" she asked, "You said there were two of them?"

He nodded, "Yeah, the other guys name was Kisame Hoshigaki", he answered.

"That name sounds familiar…" Ino said as she searched her memory and then remembered hearing that name in history class. "I remember hearing that name in class when Iruka-sensei told us about the Village Hidden in the Mist…"

Naruto decided to indulge her, "he's one of the Seven Swordsman of the Mist."

Ino gasped, "the swordsmen' that tried to kill the Mizukage?" she asked.

Naruto nodded, "Yeah…just like Zabuza Momochi", he told her. Ino had already heard about Team Seven's C-Rank turned A-Rank mission to Wave Country and what transpired there. Naruto continued, "Only I think Kisame is stronger", he finished.

Ino was scared just by the thought.

Naruto continued, "He looked like a shark and carried a huge sword on his back that fed on chakra. Sadistic bastard wanted to cut my legs off so they could carry me away easier…"

Ino interrupted, "Stop! Please stop! I don't…I don't want to hear anymore…" she said, tears welling up in her eyes. She was afraid for what her beloved boyfriend had been through.

Naruto realized that he had scared her and held tightly, "Ino-chan, I'm sorry. Please don't cry. It's okay. Everything's alright. I won't let them hurt you", he said soothingly while rocking her back and forth gently.

Ino looked at him in surprise, he was worried about her? He was worried about her safety?

"I'm not worried about _me_ I'm worried about _you_," she explained, "I don't know what I'd do if something happened to you…"

Naruto placed his index and thumb on her chin so that she had to look at him.

"Nothing will happen to me", he vowed, "I'll always be here. I'll never leave you."

He then kissed her with as much passion as he could muster. She responded and moaned in happiness and pleasure and then tackled him pinning him to the ground on his back while she lay on top of him. After more than half an hour they broke apart and sat back up again.

Ino remembered "You said they came for you?" he nodded, "Why are they after you?" she asked worried.

Naruto tensed, "I…I can't tell you" he answered.

"Why not?" she pouted, "don't you trust me?"

He shook his head, "No, no it's not that it's just…difficult to explain…I…I don't want you to think any less of me…" he trailed off.

Ino was confused, "Think less of you? I don't understand. I could never think badly of you" she told him.

Naruto said nothing.

Ino looked him in the eyes and made the cutest face she possibly could, "Pwease?" she asked in a babyish voice, "Pwety pwease Naruto-kun?"

Naruto tried to resist but the cuteness was too much for him, "Alright, alright!" he said while laughing and then sighed and took a serious face, "but you may not want to be around me anymore once you hear the story", he explained.

He took a deep breath, "Ino-chan do you know what event took place on October 10 almost 13 years ago?" he asked.

She nodded, "The Kyuubi no Kitsune attacked the village."

Naruto nodded, "Do you know what happened to it?"

"Yes", she answered, "The Yondaime Hokage killed the beast at the cost of his own life."

Naruto sighed and shook his head, "No, that's just the lie the adults made up."

Ino was confused, "What do you mean?" she asked.

Naruto sighed again, "The Yondaime couldn't slay the Kyuubi. No one can, it, along with the rest of the biju, is made entirely out of chakra that takes a solid shape and form, and chakra can't die" he looked at Ino and continued, "It can, however, be sealed."

"He sealed it? Where?" she asked wondering how he would know about all of this.

Naruto shook his head, "Not where, what…or who" he continued.

Ino looked at him confused and he continued, "He had to seal it away into a person but not just any person" he said, "any human being with developed chakra coils would be destroyed instantly by the process and the Kyuubi would have been released once more" he told her, "So he sealed it into someone whose chakra coils hadn't fully developed, a new born child…an orphan…someone who was born the day of the attack", he looked at her and finished, "I was the only child born on October 10 that year."

Ino's eyes widened as she understood what he was trying to tell her, "He sealed the Kyuubi into…you?"

He lifted his shirt and channeled chakra through his body. Sure enough the seal appeared on his stomach and Ino gasped.

Naruto sighed and nodded, "Yes he sealed the beast into me…his newborn son", he finished.

Ino's eyes widened even more, "His…son? B-but how can you be…? His wife and child died during the attack…"

He shook his head, "You shouldn't believe everything the council says, 50% of what they say is a lie and 49% is propaganda. The 1% left over is the only actually truth."

Ino smiled mentally at the statistics he had given and then asked, "How do you know…?"

Naruto shrugged, "I had suspicions, I've seen pictures of him before and I heard people whispering that we look exactly alike…except for the whisker marks", he touched the marks on his face, "These are just another side effect of the Kyuubi. I also grew suspicious when Jiraiya taught me the Rasengan, which was one of dad's signature jutsus," he sighed yet again, "I mean, who else would he have sealed the fox into? He wouldn't do it to someone else's child would he?" he asked her before continuing, "When I confronted Ero-sennin and Baa-chan about it and pointed out the overwhelmingly obvious evidence, they confirmed it after I pressured them a bit", he finished.

Ino was shocked, but did see a resemblance between the two and she also realized why Naruto showed up to class the day after the Kyuubi Festival covered in bruises and cuts or worse…and the reason why her mother hated him so much.

Naruto sighed, "Now I suppose you'll run away from me like everyone else," he said sadly, "I understand, everyone thinks because the Kyuubi is sealed within me it makes me the monster itself," he growled and continued, "All my father wanted as his dying wish was for his son to be treated as a hero by the villagers, but instead they spit on his grave and attack me every chance they can get, and it's always worse on my birthday…If it weren't for the enhanced healing capacity the beast grants me I would have died a long time ago" he trailed off sadly.

Ino saw the look in his eyes and sat up.

Naruto felt her get up and thought that she was leaving him. His heart began to break…until he saw what happened next.

Ino threw her arms around him and hugged him tightly while crying for all the suffering he had to endure, "I'm so sorry" she repeated over and over again, remembering that she used to make fun of him when they were at the academy.

Naruto was shocked at first but hugged her back.

After a few more moments they broke apart.

Ino looked her beloved in the eyes with a face of feigned anger.

"Naruto Uzumaki", she said his name like an angry parent would say while scolding a child, "Did you really think this would scare me away from you?" she asked harshly.

Naruto did a double take, "W-what?"

"You heard me", she said, "Did you really think I was going to leave you just because you have the Kyuubi sealed inside of you? Do you really think I'm that shallow?" she asked him.

Naruto was shocked; he didn't expect this kind of reaction, "Ino-chan I-"

Ino placed her finger over his lips, "Shh", she commanded before continuing, "I don't think you're a monster", she explained, "I know you aren't the Kyuubi. I know you didn't really kill any of those people. But most importantly…" she said while pausing.

The anticipation was killing Naruto; she saw his expression and laughed before continuing.

"Most importantly I know who you really are. You are the kind, caring, and loving guy who made me feel like I was worth something, like I was special. You are the guy who saved me from life as a shallow fan girl and then swept me off my feet. You're my boyfriend, the best boyfriend any girl could ever ask for. I could never think badly of you. No matter what my mother or any of the other villagers say, I **know** I'm right", she finished, smiling at him triumphantly.

Naruto was amazed and relieved, tears of joy rolling down his face while he smiled at her. He then pulled her into a kiss more passionate than ever before. Ino sighed and melted into the kiss immediately moaning loudly in pleasure.

It was almost an hour later when they broke apart. They looked at each other and smiled.

Naruto spoke first, "Thank you, Ino-chan, thank you for accepting me."

Ino laughed, "It'll take more than a demon sealed inside of you to keep _me_ away", she said, winking at him.

They both laughed before Naruto pulled his Angel into his lap and held her against his chest.

"Now then," Naruto said while smiling, "do you want to know what happened next on our journey to find Baa-chan?" he asked.

Ino smiled back and nodded.

Naruto continued his story about when he was taught the Rasengan, and how they had found the old bat (Tsunade) and tried to persuade her to become the Godaime Hokage. He told her about his bet with her, which he had won, and about his encounter with Orochimaru and Kabuto Yakushi.

Ino was shocked when she learned the four-eyed genin that failed the Chuunin Exams seven times (including the exam that year) was Orochimaru's right hand man.

"Kabuto? The same Kabuto that helped us during the Chuunin Exams?" she asked.

Naruto nodded "That's the one", he sighed, "I knew there was something about that geek that was off, he had jonin level chakra reserves and yet he still failed seven times. He fought Baa-Chan to a draw until he used her fear of blood against her. Then I tried to save her and he beat the hell out of me." He noticed Ino getting worried and quickly said, "But I was able to defeat him with a Rasengan. He healed himself, but the shock from the blow still brought him down."

Ino was relieved. She then remembered something. "Why was Orochimaru looking for Tsunade-sama?" she asked.

Naruto smirked, "It turns out he needed her help," he explained, "The fight with the old man had hurt his arms pretty badly."

Ino was confused, "You said Kabuto was a medical nin, right? Why didn't he heal Orochimaru?" she asked.

Naruto grinned darkly, "this was no ordinary wound, Ero-sennin told me he used a sealing jutsu that summoned the Shinigami himself to rip Orochimaru's soul right out of his body at the cost of the summoner's life. The same jutsu that imprisoned the Kyuubi within me. The Shinigami removes the soul of the victim and the user and then swallows them. Both souls are then forced to do battle inside the death god's stomach for eternity." He looked at his Angel and smiled at her reaction before continuing, "The old man didn't have enough strength to remove his soul completely so he did the next best thing" Naruto smirked again, "He took the snake's dream away from him."

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"Orochimaru's dream was to learn every jutsu that has ever or will ever exist," he had a sadistic grin on his face and continued, "So the old man settled with removing the part of the snake's soul that allowed him to use his arms and ripped it out" he looked at her and explained, "If you can't use your arms, you can't make hand seals, and if you can't use hand seals…"

"You can't use jutsu!" Ino finished in surprise and then smiled at the Snake-Sannin's misfortune.

"Exactly", Naruto said squeezing her tightly around her waist before stroking the bandages that were wrapped around there.

"Hmm," he thought, "You have such a lovely figure," he stated in a husky voice causing her to blush. He then moved his hands down to her legs to the bandages she had wrapped around them, "It's too bad you have to hide it behind these troublesome bandages of yours, you'd look even sexier without them. Maybe I should just…" He started to remove them.

Ino blushed madly before regaining her composure. She quickly moved his hands away.

"Are you crazy?" she asked, "My parents would kill me if I did that!" she said shocked. Her parents only allowed her to wear her usual attire with the bandages on her, believing it provided at least _some_ form of modesty. Still, she had to admit to herself that it was tempting to show off her body to Naruto.

He ignored her hands and began trying again, "But they look so…uncomfortable, a gorgeous body like yours should be allowed to breathe freely and unhindered," he said as he managed to get the bandages on her right leg loosened.

Ino gulped, "I-I can't," she explained "I'll look…skanky", she finished.

Naruto rolled his eyes, "I don't think you will", he said, "I think you'll look more…angelic", he was slowly unwrapped the bandages he had gotten loose.

Ino was so red she would put a cherry to shame, "B-but I…" she tried to say, but Naruto put his index finger on her lip and interrupted her like she had done to him before.

"Shh…no buts," he said as he got the bandages on her right leg off, "You don't have to stay like this all day," he explained, "I just want a little peek at your glorious body. When I'm done you can wrap them up again. Just consider this as a…preview to when you wear your lovely hair down for me. When you do, I'll make this feel even better", he promised, finally removing the bandages. He then began to gently move his hand up and down her exposed leg.

She moaned and closed her eyes in content while trying to remember what they were arguing about.

Naruto continued to rub her leg, "Mmm…Your skin is so soft…like silk only warmer", he told her, "truly you are an angel. Only something that dwells within Heaven itself could have skin this soft, this smooth, this…perfect."

Ino blushed at his compliment and shuddered for a brief moment at his soft touch but made no attempt to stop him.

Naruto then began to slowly unwrap the bandages on her left leg, "You don't really mind this do you?" he asked innocently, unwrapping the bandages easier this time and began stroking her other leg.

Ino couldn't concentrate. Truthfully, it felt amazing! "N-no", she answered quietly.

Naruto smiled at her and began unwrapping the bandages around her waist.

"Are you going to try to stop me?" he asked.

"No," she answered.

Naruto smirked. He smelled an easy victory. He then leaned forward, and whispered, "Do you want me to stop?" into her ear.

Ino shivered and whispered "No."

"That's my girl", he said as he unwrapped the bandages around her waist at began gently moving his hands up and down, slowly.

While doing this, he then moved his mouth to her throat and nibble on it while running his lips across it and nibbling. She moaned while closing her eyes. She moved her head back so that he could have easier access to her throat.

After a moment he got an idea that he thought she would enjoy, "Does a massage sound good to you right now? Would you like me to give you one?" he asked, moving his lips across her jaw line.

She moaned loudly before saying, "Yes please" very softly.

He gently placed her on the ground on her stomach, kneeled over her, and continued to massage her body slowly, exposed skin or otherwise. She placed her head down on her hands and closed her eyes.

Naruto continued to massage her body slowly but gently. "Whatever I did to deserve an angel like yourself, I'll never know but I'll always be grateful for it."

Ino blushed, though he could not see it.

"You've made me feel so happy, so wanted, so…appreciated", Ino told him, "I'm pretty sure it's me that doesn't deserve you."

He looked down, leaned over her, and moved his lips toward her neck and nibbled and gave occasional love bites. She shivered and sighed. "Ino-chan you deserve all of those things and more", he explained, "You deserve to be praised, to be loved. I'm simply giving you what you deserve…and besides the chance to make you happy is too good to pass up. I feel honored being able to touch a goddess like you. I'm enjoying this almost as much as you are."

"I doubt that", she sighed, blushing even brighter at his extremely flattering and never-ending compliments.

He chuckled and continued to massage her shoulders and upper back.

"This isn't so bad, now is it, my dear?" Naruto asked.

"No", Ino muttered again, "Lower please" she asked.

He smirked and began moving his hands slowly down her lower back.

"Does this feel good?" he asked his beloved.

"Mmm…yes…very good", she sighed, "Harder please" she asked. She was in heaven right now.

Naruto pressed down harder and Ino moaned even louder.

"Just relax, my Angel. For the next few hours, I will give you the attention and treatment you deserve…that of a goddess."

Ino sighed in happiness, 'you already do', she thought, but decided not to say that out loud and let him continue to massage her, 'God, this is amazing! if it's this good now and he said he'd make it even better when my hair grows back and I let it down…', the possibilities caused her to pray with every ounce of her heart and soul that her hair would grow back very, very soon.

It would be several hours before the photo was taken. (No, they didn't do what thought they were doing.)

_Flashback End_

On the back of the photo was writing that told the date, day, and time the photo was taken along with who was in the photo. It said "Me with Ino, my Angel". Ino had burst into tears upon seeing this. Hinata had to console her for a few moments before she finally calmed down and placed the picture in her bag along with the picture of himself with Team 7 (for what it was worth, which wasn't much…maybe she would cut out Sasuke and Sakura's picture's, enlarge them, and use them for target practice). She also collected his house plants and promised to keep them alive in memory of her late boyfriend.

Not wanting the villagers to have the last laugh the two girls had asked Tenten to rig the apartment with a surprise. She did so gladly and set a trip-wire activated bomb at the door to the apartment.

They three girls hid and waited. Sure enough, a mob of villagers had arrived to trash the place. When the lead villager kicked the door in, he sealed their doom.

BOOM!

A huge explosion rocked through the village as Naruto's apartment went up in a blaze of fire. No one in the mob died, but many had severe burn wounds and broken bones from the blast. The landlord across the street was in a cursing frenzy while throwing a childish fit at the sight. (The tantrum was unnecessary, really. Who the hell would buy the place anyway?)

The only members of the Konoha 12 (now 11) who did not feel any ounce of sadness toward Naruto's death were Sakura Haruno and, of course, Sasuke Uchiha.

Sakura, at this point, had become so obsessed and infatuated with Sasuke that you could almost pity her.

"Almost" being the keyword.

As it turns out, Sakura's mother, Kaede Haruno, had told her daughter about Naruto having the Kyuubi sealed within him long before the Rookie 9 had graduated, and Sakura had adopted her mother's view on Naruto, the view that he was a demon who did not deserve to live.

Following her mother's suggestion and on behalf of the civilian council, which Kaede was a part of, Sakura proceeded to make Naruto's life in the academy and beyond miserable and, by some extremely cruel act of twisted fate, had gotten Naruto to fall in love with her.

When she told the others that she had already known about Naruto's demon and then told them all about what the civilian council had told her to do, her "friends", turned on her.

She was stunned when this happened and thought that the "demon" had hypnotized them and did everything she could to free them from "the demon's grip", but they remained loyal to their late friend despite what Sakura or anyone else would say.

When Sakura had found out about Ino's and Hinata's infatuation with Naruto, she tried to "help" them as well.

The confrontation Ino had with her former friend/rival when she found out about the blonde's relationship with Naruto was an encounter both of them would always remember.

_Flashback_

Ino was sitting at the Ichiraku Ramen vendor and eating. She had been coming here since Naruto had brought her here on a date and found the ramen to her liking. She also liked Teuchi and Ayame, finding they were people who were sympathetic on her feelings of sadness since Naruto's death.

Ino noticed a blur of pink out of the corner of her eye. When she turned to look at the source she sighed before looking back at her ramen. It was Sakura, walking straight toward her down the street, pretending not to notice that her blonde friend was there, but Ino knew she was there to see her. She had been dreading this encounter for some time but knew it was going to happen anyway. The blonde took a deep breath and prepared herself.

"Ino-pig!" Sakura greeted her with a tone of false surprise in her voice, "What are you doing here?" she asked.

Ino sighed and said "here we go", under her breath before turning towards her friend and former rival.

"Hey forehead", Ino greeted her in a dejected voice, "I'm eating", she said answering her friends question.

Sakura rolled her eyes at Ino's answer but otherwise ignored it. She stood in front of her friend and asked the question Ino knew she was going to ask, "So…Why haven't you been visiting Sasuke-kun in the hospital?"

"Because I don't like Sasuke anymore", she answered simply. Apparently, Sakura had not gotten the memo that she was Naruto's girlfriend for quite awhile. This, of course, was about to change…

Sakura was shocked, "W-what do mean?" she asked, confused, "Wait…does this mean we're not rivals for Sasuke-kun's affections anymore?"

Ino nodded, "Yep", she answered simply, "I've moved on."

Sakura was amazed, Ino was just as passionate about Sasuke as she was (almost) and now she had completely outgrown him? The pinkette was wondering just what could have forced this change in her friend.

"When did this happen?" she asked.

"Since I met someone else", Ino replied.

Sakura eyes widened. Who could possibly be fascinating and attractive enough to draw Ino away from Sasuke?

"Someone else?" she asked.

"Someone else." Ino replied simply. 'Let it go, let it go, let it go…' she chanted to herself, praying Sakura would just drop the subject.

Yeah, like _that's_ going to happen.

"Who?" Sakura asked, getting annoyed at her friend's simple answers.

'Dammit', Ino thought to herself, she knew Sakura wasn't going to let this go but decided to annoy her further.

"Someone", she answered, grinning to herself at her friend's frustration.

Sakura growled under her breath, "Who are you talking about?"

Ino shook her head, "I don't think I'll tell you."

Sakura was pouty now, "Why not?" she asked in a voice that was similar to a child whining about not getting their way, "At least give me a hint!"

"I don't know…" Ino said, feigning uncertainty.

Sakura was angry, "Oh come on!" she complained, "tell me something!"

Ino decided to concede, "Fine", she said while sighing.

Sakura perked up, "Is he someone we know?" she asked eagerly.

Ino nodded.

Sakura immediately thought of Ino's teammates who were the people closest to her, "Is it Shikamaru?" she asked, "I mean he's ok I guess, but how do you deal with that pessimistic attitude of his?"

Ino rolled her eyes, "It's not Shikamaru", she answered.

Sakura thought more before asking "Is it…Choji?" she said the name incredulously, "He's kind of…big don't you think?"

Ino looked at her friend with an annoyed look, "It's not Choji", she answered.

Sakura thought, but couldn't think of anyone else that was their age that Ino would take an interest in.

"Then who is it?" she asked exasperated.

Ino smirked, if anything else, this was a nice distraction from her sadness and heartbreak from Naruto's death. She decided to keep this going as long as she could.

"Keep guessing", she told Sakura.

Sakura sighed and decided this was the only way to get an answer out of Ino, "Is he the same age as we are?" she asked.

Ino nodded.

"Is he someone we know from the academy?"

She nodded again.

"Is he someone I've met before?"

Ino nodded once again.

"Is he cute?"

Ino nodded a fourth time.

Sakura thought of everyone she had ever known who fit this description but came up with no one.

Sakura sighed, "Come on, give me some kind of hint! Can I meet this mystery man of yours?" she asked.

Ino became depressed immediately after hearing these words and felt tears well up in her eyes but held them back. Teuchi and Ayame, who had been listening to the entire conversation, were also saddened by this question.

Sakura was confused and worried at the devastated look on her friends face, "Ino what's wrong?" she asked wondering what she could have said to cause this kind of reaction.

Ino lowered her head, "You…you can't meet him."

"Why?" Sakura asked, confused by these words.

"Because…because he died recently", Ino explained.

Sakura thought on these words. 'Died recently? Who do we know that has di-?'

And then she figured it out. 'No…no it can't be _him_…can it?' she thought incredulously.

Sakura took a moment to gather her thoughts before asking, "Is it…Naruto?" she said the name quietly.

Ino nodded and whispered, "Yes."

Sakura was stunned. Ino with Naruto? 'This has to be some kind of sick joke', she thought to herself. After a long moment of silence Sakura decided to ask the question that was afflicting her mind the most.

"How long ago did this happen?"

Ino sighed, "Since two weeks before the Chuunin Exam Finals started", she told her friend.

Sakura eyes widened, "How did it happen?" she asked.

Ino sighed, "Naruto came into my family's store", she explained, "He needed help with something and while I was looking through the back of the store for something he needed we started talking. He asked me why I liked Sasuke and when I realized that I didn't know and how shallow I was I started crying. When that happened Naruto was…was there for me. He held me and told me everything was alright and that I wasn't shallow", Ino started to feel her tears welling up in her eyes, "He told me I was beautiful, smart, and kind and that Sasuke didn't deserve me if he didn't realize that", she took a deep breath and continued, "I've never felt so happy and appreciated in my entire life…we kissed and had been going out ever since", she finished sadly.

Sakura took a long moment to process what she had just been told.

Ino Yamanaka, her best friend and former rival, had been dating the Kyuubi Incarnate.

'No' she thought, 'no, there's no way. How could she have dated that…thing?' she asked herself before something occurred to her, 'She must have been hypnotized' she thought, 'she must still be under his control.'

She then went to console her friend and to add her two cents.

Little did Sakura know that the next attempts at comfort and persuasion did not go well.

_Flashback End (_**Sorry. I tried to come up with a shouting match between Ino and Sakura, but after eight months of writers block I just gave up on it, yet I couldn't bring myself to wipe out the entire flashback completely. Just take my word for it in the next sentence and the paragraph after that.**)

After an intense shouting match and one too many insults aimed at Naruto, Sakura ended up in the hospital having been beaten into a coma along with receiving several broken bones and a broken jaw (that'll shut her up) from her brawl with Ino. Turns out training with Naruto paid off quite well. After being released from the hospital Sakura was immediately readmitted back into the hospital a few days later after she had a similar argument with Hinata. That one involved a lot of internal bleeding on the pinkette's part.

The villagers also learned of this and began calling them names along the lines of "demon whores" and whatnot. Most villagers kept this opinion to themselves after a while, seeing as how they would receive a vicious beating if they called either girl this or any other name out loud.

Sasuke on the other hand was…well…Sasuke.

He was brooding now more than ever at the regained memories of his fight between Naruto at the Valley of The End, a fight that he lost but never admitted it. He hated the fact that he lost to the so called "dead-last" of his graduating year at the academy. If he couldn't defeat Naruto, what hope did he have of defeating Itachi? The Mangekyo Sharingan, he hoped, would change that. Kakashi had kept his promise of training Sasuke in the use of the Mangekyo. In theory, not practicality, of course, considering extended use of the Mangekyo would render him blind.

Sasuke was now being praised more than ever after killing Naruto and the amount of fangirls he had nearly tripled from the amount before. His peers, however, hated his guts with a passion. They ignored him, called him weak for trying to take the easy way out in order to gain power. Most of his fellow shinobi shunned him and refused to work with the traitor for any reason unless forced to do so. Many even decided to deface the Uchiha district on a regular basis.

Both of Naruto's former teammates learned the meaning of Karma, however, through the Konohamaru Corps. The kids did everything they could in order to make Sasuke and Sakura's lives fucking miserable beyond words and alternated who would suffer at the end of every two weeks.

(**No, I'm not going to come up with any particular pranks for this fic. I tried, I really did try, but it's just not something I'm good at coming up with. Don't like it? Fuck you.**)

Konohamaru himself, promised to become Hokage in Naruto's memory and to make Sasuke's and Sakura's lives miserable on an unimaginable level.

Tsunade smirked and imagined Naruto with anime tears in his eyes, being proud of the Corps saying "They grow up so fast". She then went back to concentrating on her work.

Naruto's friends outside of Konoha were deeply affected by his death as well. This included the people of Wave Country, Princess Koyuki Kazehana, and Gaara among others.

Gaara was the first to hear the news along with his siblings Temari and Kankuro, and took the news the hardest by far.

The Ichibi Jinchuuriki had actually shed tears for the first time since his uncle Yashamaru had betrayed him as a child. After being told, he left the village soon afterward along with his sibling's.

Tsunade sighed; a lot of troubling events had also happened over the past year.

The first event came in the form of Sasuke Uchiha's trial, particularly Kakashi's testimony at the beginning, claiming that Sasuke had lost control of the Curse Mark and attacked Naruto in an psychotic frenzy. She was also angry the large lack of severity in his punishment for betraying Konoha and killing his fellow shinobi.

The Council was divided on that case.

On one side the elders including Danzo Shimura and the Sandiame Hokage's former teammates, Homura Mitokado and Koharu Utatane, along with the civilian council were all too eager to pardon the Uchiha runaway, thinking the village needed the Uchiha clan's Sharingan in order to be strong.

On the other side, however, the clan heads and the Hokage herself (who personally wanted to crucify the runt) wanted the boy to be locked up, executed, and/or have his bloodline sealed, as they thought he was too mentally and emotionally unstable to be allowed to wield it. They also believed that if he were not detained, he would run off to join Orochimaru again. They all shuddered at the thought.

What would the world be like if the Snake Sannin possessed the Sharingan?

Even before his death, most of the clan heads had either stood up for Naruto (some of whom were greatly amused by his pranks, which they thought were ingenious) or took a neutral stance on said blonde. The only clan heads who had ever disliked him were Tsume Inuzuka and Hiashi Hyuuga, both of whom had changed their view on the boy since.

Tsume had hated Naruto and blamed him for the death of her husband during the Kyuubi attack and thought Naruto was the Kyuubi Incarnate. She was also outraged at the fact that her son, Kiba, had been defeated by the boy during the Chuunin Exam Preliminaries. When Tsume had visited her son in the hospital, and saw how upset he was over Naruto's death, she told him about Naruto's past and said his death should have happened a long time ago and that he should take relief at the fact that his father's murderer was now dead. This caused Kiba to throw his food tray at her and he told her to get out and stop being so narrow minded (his actual words were a bit more…colorful than that but you get the idea). She also discovered that her daughter, Hana, also shared Kiba's point of view and was disgusted by her mother's behavior. Over the next few days, Tsume had thought over her actions and how she had aided in the boys suffering and, after apologizing to her children, had prayed for forgiveness for what she had done.

Hiashi had hated…no not hated, rather _disliked_, Naruto because he was a close friend of the Yondaime and, despite his better judgment; he blamed Naruto for his death. Hiashi had long suspected Naruto's heritage, though no one ever confirmed this. He hated the fact that whenever he looked at Naruto's face he saw his deceased friend. His view on Naruto had changed, however, after his fight against his nephew Neji during the Chuunin Exam finals. Not only had Naruto prevailed over the Hyuuga prodigy, he had also helped ease Neji's hatred for the main branch of the Hyuuga Clan. Hiashi's opinion of Naruto was also affected by Hinata's change in behavior after Naruto's death. Hinata was morbidly depressed for several months after the blonde's death. The normally cold and uncaring Hiashi took sympathy and pity on his eldest daughter. He hadn't seen anyone this saddened since himself when his wife died giving birth to little Hanabi. Over the past year, he had become a more sympathetic figure toward Hinata and had begun training her at her request, wanting to become strong enough to be the heir her father and Naruto would have wanted her to be.

Despite the clan heads argument, the elders and civilian council made up the majority of the council and their decision had been the one to prevail.

The Uchiha traitor was given a six month suspension period and was assigned an ANBU squad to watch over him at all times. He was given a three year period minimum before he could receive any kind of promotion and was forbidden from using his curse mark under any circumstances under penalty of death (not that he could considering Jiraiya sealed it).

The council had also given Sasuke practically everything he asked for, particularly powerful jutsu. They had even tried to force Jiraiya to train him but the Toad Sage refused, saying that Sasuke did not deserve to be his apprentice just because of his heritage and had renounced ever taking another apprentice ever again. The Sannin had left the village that same day and hasn't been heard from since.

Tsunade, however, was forced to take Sakura Haruno under her apprenticeship but had only agreed to do so after allowing Ino Yamanaka to be her senior apprentice.

Tsunade scowled, though the council would not admit it, they, no doubt, wanted to make Sasuke the next Hokage.

Not on her watch.

The Slug Sannin had done everything she could to make Sasuke's and Sakura's lives miserable beyond comprehension, always giving them the worst missions she could come up with. Sometimes she would order the Konohamaru Corps to cause an immense disaster and then order team seven to clean it up. She almost always placed the two objects of her anger together, since the Uchiha considered hanging out with the pinkette a form of torture, and hoped Sakura would see how hopeless her attempts to claim the traitor were, and would either give up and accept she was wrong or be completely devastated by it. So far, no luck, but you never know…

These events were troubling for sure. But there was one thing that surpassed them completely.

Information about this said event was about to its way to the Slug-Sannin's ever growing pile of paperwork on her desk.

There was a knock on the door.

Tsunade sighed 'what now?' she thought before saying "Enter."

A Konoha Chuunin entered. "Hokage-sama", he said bowing before continuing, "We have just received word from the team that was sent to River Country."

He then placed a note on her desk.

Tsunade knew of the team that was sent. It included Rock Lee, Tenten, Neji Hyuuga, Sasuke Uchiha, and Kakashi Hatake. She looked over the note before her eyes widened. She then sighed, "Thank you", she told the Chuunin, "you may go now."

He nodded and left, closing the door behind him.

The letter that she had just been given stated that the team she sent had found out that people of the village of Katabami Kinzan were being kidnapped and being taken to a nearby gold mine and being forced to work against their will. It was later discover that a group of people, under the command of Raiga Kurosuki, a former member of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist, were behind the kidnappings. Before the team could come up with a plan to rescue the enslaved people a monster burst through the mine, slaughtered all of Raiga's men, and then challenged and defeated the swordsman himself in single combat before killing him. The beast then took Raiga's infamous Lighting Fangs and fled. Only two of Raiga's subordinates were spared, a young disabled boy named Ranmaru who possessed some sort of bloodline that was capable of casting illusions, seeing through walls, and even neutralizing the Byakugan, and an older boy named Karashi, a local villager who believed Raiga would make him stronger. The latter was taken back to Katabami Kinzan, while the former was being brought back to Konoha to treat his disability. Raiga's body was never recovered. The beast that slaughtered Raiga and his men was identified as the "demon".

Ah, yes. The infamous "demon" had been sighted once again.

For the past year, there have been numerous reported sightings and encounters of a creature that resembled a demon throughout the Elemental Nations.

The first sightings occurred in Wave Country, two months after Naruto's death, in Wave Country. There were rumors about the remainder of Gato's men returning with more mercenaries in an attempt to take control of the country again.

A team of Konoha Shinobi had been sent to investigate the bandit activity and when they had arrived at the bandit camp what they found was horrifying.

What was once a camp with more than 200 armed men was now the scene of a slaughter house. The tents and supplies were destroyed and there was blood as well as mangled and disembodied corpses everywhere. The team had found only two survivors.

One survivor bled to death before the team could get him proper medical attention. The other had provided some information after being calmed down and even then he was still shaking and looking around frantically, fearing the monster would come back.

The bandit claimed that an immense beast had entered the camp and began slaughtering everything it found. He described the beast as tall and muscular with black, armored skin, razor sharp teeth and claws and had demonic, blood red eyes. It walked both upright like a man and by skittering around on all fours (like a lizard). He said the beast's head was shaped oddly; it had a fox-like appearance to it with two horns the protruded from either side of it that looked like ears. It had broad shoulders and a long, fox-like tail.

The survivor even claimed that the beast even ate some of the men. More than once during the attack, it grabbed some of the men, killed them, and then the beast and victim would both be covered by a strange dark red and black substance as the person it killed was apparently sucked into its body.

Tsunade had wanted to bring the survivor back the village for further questioning, but when the team went to retrieve him the next morning, he had committed suicide by stabbing himself in the heart with a knife he had somehow gotten a hold of.

Over the next few months the demon had been sighted in multiple countries, leaving a trail of blood and bodies in its wake. Mostly bandits and mercenaries were targeted but eventually it started to hunt more challenging foes. Soon missing-nin were the targets of this beast's blood lust, Raiga apparently being its latest victim. What Tsunade was shocked about this was that the creature had never taken on someone of Raiga's caliber before.

The strangest thing, however, was how eye witnesses described the beast, or rather, it's method of attack.

Though the physical descriptions remained the same, but the descriptions on the creature's form of attack always varied.

Many witnesses said they saw it slash through its foes with large razor sharp claws. Others said its arms were shaped like hammers. A few even stated that it was able to launch a whip-like tendril from its arms that could slash through foes or pull them closer. The stories always seemed to be different no matter how many times they were told.

Despite it's veracity, the demon had made a positive impact on several people, the most influential being Gaara, the newly appointed Godaime Kazekage.

Apparently, a group of shinobi from the poverty stricken Takumi Village that called themselves The Four Celestial Symbols Men had kidnapped the Kazekage's student Matsuri. This was done in an attempt to lure Gaara to them and then capture him in order to use the Shukaku's power in order to revive their village founder so they could gain some form of revenge on the Elemental Nations for turning their backs on them when they needed help. Before Gaara could send a message to Konoha for help, the demon had located Matsuri, slaughtered her kidnappers, and then brought her back to Suna unharmed. After speaking to the creature, Gaara formed an official alliance with it declaring it a friend of Sunagakure, and claiming that Suna's gates would always be open to it.

This, of course, granted the demon some form of diplomatic immunity. None of the hidden villages could send hunter-nin after the beast for fear of starting a war with Suna. Thus, the beast had no official entry in the Bingo Book, only a small warning telling bystanders to stay the hell away from it.

The beast had also gained a great deal of respect and notoriety from some of the other, smaller countries.

It was once sighted in Stone Country. There, not only did it capture a wanted criminal, it also helped a civilian-turned-bounty hunter clear his name of the charges he was faced with, crimes that the captured thief himself had committed. The strangest thing was that the demon only wanted to kill the thief itself as a reward for helping the village. The villagers agreed to the strange request and the thief was last seen being dragged away from the village, kicking and screaming all the while.

The monster was later sighted in Bird Country, where it killed a group of missing-nin called the Wandering Ninja and uncovered a ruse behind a supposed "Ghost" that had been haunting the area for some time.

Soon after, it was seen in Vegetable Country, where it killed a group of shinobi known as the Janin. These three had attempted a coup d tat on the nations Daimyo, but were killed before they could do so. As with several other sights of the beast's battles, only a massive amount of blood was found at the sight of the battle that occurred between the beast and the three brothers.

A few weeks after that, the demon helped a village located in the Rice Country, the same country that Otogakure was located in, and helped a member of a rouge ninja clan redeem himself by stopping the rest of his clan from destroying a dam that would have flooded a nearby village the group was terrorizing. Though they succeeded, the defected clan member sacrificed his life in the attempt. The demon then became so enraged; it slaughtered the rest of the rogue clan before leaving the thankful villagers behind.

The beast then killed a group of missing-nin called the Shinobazu who were attempting to kill a former member of their group before he turned himself in. Unfortunately, the prisoner was killed during the ensuing battle (1).

The demon disappeared after that and only just recently reappeared during its fight with Raiga.

Anyway…other than Suna, the demon stayed away from the major hidden villages for the most part.

Little did Tsunade know that that was about to change…

**Tea Country**

A man wearing a Rain Headband, and an umbrella on his back was bounding from tree to tree in a forest.

At first glance, this man was just an average shinobi, but this was not so.

His name was Aoi Rokushō, an Amegakure jonin and a Class-A missing-nin from Konoha.

He was not running to anywhere in particular.

He was just running for his life.

'Dammit,' he thought in a panicky tone, 'We only came here as a hired nin. All we had to do was complete a simple job. But then this…this…THING had to show up!'

Aoi and a team of Ame genin came to Tea Country during the Todoroki Shrine race and were hired by the Wagarashi clan to stop a contestant, Aoi's former pupil Idate Morino, from winning said race. If Idate won then the Wagarashi clan would lose control of Tea Country completely.

Aoi thought they had it all planned out, come up with the perfect ambush to stop Idate.

They had not factored in a monster.

The beast came out of nowhere, managed find their hiding place and engaged them in battle. The genin were slaughtered in less than sixty seconds. Aoi tried fighting back, but the beast shrugged off everything that was thrown at it and forced him to retreat.

Aoi was running as fast as he could but slowly, yet surely, he heard the beast catching up to him.

'Dammit, it's no use', Aoi thought, 'I can't out run it, I'll have to fight it', he decided.

Aoi stopped in a nearby clearing and turned to face the monster. The monster stopped as well.

They stared each other down for a few seconds before the demon opened its mouth and spoke, surprising the hell out of Aoi.

"**So you've finally decided to stop running away, eh**?" it asked in a demonic voice that was not a deep as many would have suspected and seemed to rumble as it spoke (**Think King Minos voice from **_**Dante's Inferno**_) before chuckling, "**Good, good it's much more…entertaining when the prey fights back**", it explained, grinning maliciously.

Aoi gulped but kept himself composed despite his fear. "I may be a jonin, but I know when I'm outmatched in speed." He paused before continuing, "Why are you hunting me and my team? Did another clan hire you to stop us from interfering with the race?" he asked wondering what the hell he did to bring this monstrosity down upon him.

The demon shook its head, "**Oh no, no, my dear man, I could care less about what happens in this trivial little race. Besides, do I look like someone that people want to be around, much less hire?**", it asked politely before amending, "**Wait don't answer that.**"

Aoi was slightly disturbed by the beast's polite tone, "Then why did you attack me? And why did you kill and eat my genin squad?" he asked confused. 'What the fuck does this thing want?' he thought to himself, shivering mentally at remembering how the creature had consumed the genin.

The creature cocked its head to the side before answering, "**Kill them? Yes. Eat them? No. I merely absorbed them into my own body so I could put their memories to good use.**"

Aoi was confused, "Memories?" he asked.

"**It's nothing you need to worry about. And as to why I am hunting you, well…I thought you would make a decent challenge to test my abilities against. It's nothing personal really. I also wanted to acquire the Nidaime Hokage's Raijin blade I **_**know**_** you possess.**" The beast explained simply.

"So you hunt shinobi for sport?" Aoi asked, stalling while trying to think of a plan to kill the monster in front of him.

The beast shrugged, "**More or less.**" It answered, "**Now then, was there anything else you wanted to ask before we finish this?**" it asked politely.

Aoi shook his head, "No, that's pretty much it." He answered before grabbing his senbon umbrella on his back. "It was nice talking to you, but now it's time to die! Ninja Art: Senbon Rainstorm!" he shouted before throwing his umbrella into the air. It rose high into the sky and then hovered in place. It then began to spin rapidly and began spewing thousands of senbon needles that homed in on the demon.

The beast smirked demonically before raising its left arm out in front of it.

What happened next was surprising to say the least.

The skin on the beasts arm began to shift and pulsate with a strange energy before a shield appeared where the demon's arm once was.

The senbon collided into their target kicking up a large amount of dust as they did so.

Aoi smirked, 'shield or no those senbon can pierce up to five millimeters of soild steel. There's no way that thing could have blocked it.' He thought smugly.

After a few moments, the dust cleared and revealed a sight Aoi was going to fucking _hate_.

To Aoi's shock, there stood the demon in all of it's glory, completely unharmed with the senbon sticking out of it's shield and littering the ground.

The beast dispersed the shield and looked at Aoi with a smirk on its face, "**Is that all you got?**" it asked mockingly.

Aoi overcame his shock and growled before forming a tiger hand seal and shouting, "Water Clone Technique!" Three water clones emerged and took up fighting stances.

The demon smirked, "**Clones eh?**" it asked and then continued, "**Well I can play that game too**", it formed a ram hand seal and shouted, "**Shadow Clone Technique****!**" Three shadow clones appeared much to Aoi's shock and ire.

'Great,' he thought sarcastically, 'just fucking wonderful, it can use jutsu as well.'

The clones charged each other and began fighting each other.

The demon cleared its throat, "**Now then, while our clones are distracted, shall we go?**" it asked.

Aoi smirked and pulled out Raijin "Gladly", he answered.

The Demon held up both arms and Aoi watched as they morphed into large gauntlets with spear-like tips where its hands were. The beast then took up a fighting stance.

The two paused for a moment, waiting for a leaf that had fallen between their positions to hit the ground. Once it did, they charged.

Aoi thrust the blade at the demon. The demon blocked it by forming an "X" with its arms. Aoi pulled back and came down with a downward strike. The demon blocked with one of its arms. When the blade connected, it sent a painful electrical shock through the beast's body. It winced and Aoi smirked.

"Even if the Raijin doesn't hit you, you'll still feel the shock from the blade."

"**I can take it**", the demon said, "**I've felt worse,**" it then charged again.

Their blades met time and time again and the shocks were getting worse.

"**It's time to end this.**" the beast said making a series of hand seals.

"**Mist Servant Technique****!**" it shouted before several ink-like clones of itself appeared.

Aoi was shocked, "H-how do you know how to do that?" he asked startled; "Only ninja from Amegakure know how to use that technique."

The demon smirked and said, "**Like I said before, their memories can be useful.**"

Aoi remembered the beast saying that it absorbed the Rain Genin, in order to use their memories.

"Y-you somehow gained the genin's memories and knew exactly how to perform the technique." He concluded.

The demon smiled and nodded, "**Exactly. Their memories, talents, and skills are now mine!**" it stated triumphantly, "**And soon yours will be as well.**"

Aoi shook off his shock again, "Don't get cocky. Two can play at that game", he said summoning several more mist servants himself.

"**Perhaps,**" the monster said, "**But I've got something you don't have**", it said smirking.

"Really?" Aoi asked, "and what's that?"

"**Creativity**", the demon said simply before it's mist servants leapt into the air all around Aoi.

Aoi got into defensive positions and waited to strike, but then something unexpected happened.

The mist servants burst into an ink like substance and splattered all over Aoi while passing straight through his clones.

Aoi was disgusted, but before he could say anything, he realized something.

Mist servants are only genjutsu and yet he could clearly feel the black substance on himself. It was wet and sticky. It almost reminded him of…

Aoi's eyes widened as he realized what was about to happen. By then it was too late.

The beast performed hand seals and shouted, "**Fire Release: Grand Fireball**", and launched a fireball from its mouth and aimed it at the black substance around him. The black liquid burst into flame.

Aoi screamed as he was consumed by the fire and soon fell over from the pain causing his mist servants to disappear.

The beast put out the fires creating and dispersing water clones around the fire, the falling liquid snuffing out the flames. The demon approached its fallen foe.

A severely burned Aoi looked up, "You used water clones made of the Black Rain Technique and tricked me into thinking they were mist servants." He concluded his voice weak from the pain, "But when did you summon the rain?"

"**Right before I entered the clearing**", it explained.

Aoi looked up at his foe, "not bad demon", he said chuckling, "not bad…at…all…"

And then he died.

The demon looked at his deceased opponent for a moment. It then kneeled over Aoi's body…

And then consumed it.

The demon's skin began to pulsate and warp as it's body shrunk.

The beast looked itself over when it took Aoi's appearance and then stood up.

A voice came from the back of its mind.

"**Well done kit**", Kyuubi said in an admiring tone, "**that's another opponent you have defeated. This will further push your plan towards completion.**"

Naruto Uzumaki Namikaze nodded mentally.

Over the past year, Naruto had been planning the perfect form of revenge against his former teammate and sensei as well as the civilians and shinobi alike that had made him suffer as a child.

After freeing himself from his makeshift tomb, he vowed to return one day in order to destroy those who betrayed him and those who had been even remotely involved in his abuse as a child, but not yet. No, no it was much too soon to return right then and there so soon after his apparent death.

It hurt him to do so, but he decided to let everyone think he was dead for several reasons.

Reason one; he had completely dropped off the radar. Being dead had its advantages. The Akatsuki would no doubt hear of his demise and thus would have no reason to bother Konoha anymore and would have no reason to attack the village. Not to mention Orochimaru would no doubt want revenge on him for preventing his recruitment of Sasuke Uchiha if he knew Naruto was still alive.

Despite how much he despised most of the inhabitants of the village, he did not want it to be destroyed. There were still quite a few people he cared about that dwelled within its walls.

Reason two; he had the element of surprise on his side. The traitors and villagers were all smug and confident, believing that the "demon" was dead, unaware of the Sword of Damocles that hung over their heads. He would use this to his advantage, he would wait, bide his time, and when they least expected it…then he would strike. The looks on their faces when they saw him alive, standing before them would be well worth the wait, especially once they saw his newly gained abilities.

Reason three; he was not ready. No, not in the slightest. Once he had enacted his plan for vengeance and revealed himself in his human form (which he planned to do), the elders and civilian council members would no doubt send several elite shinobi to claim his head, especially once they know it's him, Naruto Uzumaki, the "demon" that they harbored old and misplaced hatreds for. No doubt there will be several shinobi after him regardless. So with that in mind he promised himself to return only after he had become strong enough to defend himself and those he cared about.

Finally, Reason four; He wanted his retribution to be perfect. He didn't just want to kill his enemies…he wanted to completely destroy them. He wanted to drag them straight through their own personal hells. He wanted them to suffer as he had. He would take everything away from them right in front of their very eyes before he ended their miserable, meaningless lives. Rake them across the coals, so to speak.

There were quite a few people who needed to suffer in Konoha.

Firstly, there was Sasuke Uchiha. Naruto wanted the spoiled little runt to suffer, for not only killing him, but for throwing away the friendship Naruto had so readily given him. Naruto had given Sasuke his friendship and the privilege of being his rival and best friend only to have the Uchiha spit it in his face. That little mistake would cost Sasuke dearly.

Secondly, there was Kakashi Hatake. Naruto's former sensei would pay for his simple-minded favoritism and his betrayal after everything the blonde had done for him. He will suffer for betraying his sensei's son.

Finally, there were the members of the civilian council, the elders, as well as the villagers and shinobi who had caused Naruto's childhood to be so miserable. They would suffer for causing Naruto his pain, there lust for power, and, more importantly, for ignoring the dying wish of his father and their hero and savior.

In order to completely destroy these ungrateful fools, he would take what they cared about most and destroy it right in front of their very eyes.

Naruto already knew what he would take away from Sasuke; his so called purpose. He would take away the last "loyal" Uchiha's chance of revenge against his brother. Naturally, this meant Itachi had to die by Naruto's hands. But not for a while, he knew he wasn't strong enough to take on the older of the Uchiha siblings…at least, not yet. So he had to become much stronger before he tracked the elder Uchiha survivor down in order to end him.

He also knew what he would take away from Kakashi; his precious Uchiha student. Naruto knew the story about how the Cyclops had lost his eye and his best friend, Obito Uchiha, and believed he owed his deceased friend everything. He wanted to make up for his friend's death by helping to train the last "loyal" Uchiha to become strong enough to fulfill his goal and to become a ninja of legend. Naruto's task was simple; all he had to do was kill Sasuke right in front of the cyclopean fool in order to completely destroy him.

As for the civilians and council members…he wasn't quite sure how to deal with them just yet. He knew there had to be something they all cared about, one tie that bound them all together in some way, shape, or form, but what? Naruto decided to wait for the villagers to finish most of their celebrating of his death before he infiltrated Konoha to spy on them in order to learn their collective weakness, an easy task considering his new shape-shifting talents.

Naruto then changed back into his armored form and picked up the Raijin blade off the ground.

'I got a nice little bonus from this one too', he thought, though he was slightly disappointed that the fire had destroyed the senbon umbrella. It was no matter, though, as he had acquired a similar umbrella from the leader of the group that called itself "Shinobazu" a few weeks earlier, as well as a giant drill. He had no use for the drill, but he decided to keep it anyway, just in case.

Kyuubi mentally nodded, "**Indeed,** **that's one more advantage we have over** **Konoha and a decent bit of leverage as well**", the biju stated, "**They aren't going to be happy when they find out that the infamous 'Demon' has acquired, not only Raiga's Lightning Fangs, but the Nidaime's blade as well. A missing-nin is one thing, but a demon? Well…we both know they're not exactly fond of those.**" Kyuubi noted, smiling at the thought of the council's reaction to this turn of events.

'Indeed', the boy thought in response grinning, 'But I think I need a better title than 'the Demon' if I'm going to try getting people's attention.'

Kyuubi nodded, "**Any ideas come to mind?**" he asked.

Naruto thought about what Kyuubi had told him about his newfound abilities.

The fox had said that he was "The next stage of human evolution."

"The perfect human specimen."

"The height of perfection."

Naruto nodded mentally, 'I've got one.'

Kyuubi waited for him to continue.

'I am the ultimate life form, the perfect weapon, the first, and perhaps the only, one of my kind.'

'I am The Prototype' He announced triumphantly.

Kyuubi chuckled, "**The Prototype huh? Not bad. It certainly fits and it's got a nice ring to it as well**", he approved.

'Glad you like it', Naruto replied, 'now let's get going we still have more terror and fear to spread and hopefully there will be witnesses to spread my newfound name', he said smiling at the thought. He was about ready to leave when he paused.

"**Kit? Something wrong?**" Kyuubi asked.

Naruto was thinking. Was it time to visit home? Would everyone be done celebrating or mourning his death by now?

After a moment of thought, he then came to a decision, 'Before we do that, I thinks it's time to go and visit home again.'

Kyuubi was confused, "**Why would you do that? You haven't fully prepared yourself.**"

'I know that', Naruto thought, 'I meant visit while incognito and see what's been going on. It's been a more than a year, so the villagers should have stopped celebrating my, no, **our** death by now. Life should be returning to normal. The perfect time to gather information' he explained.

Kyuubi was curious, "**What kind of information?**" he asked.

Naruto grinned, 'Information about the villager's collective weakness of course', he told the biju, 'There has to be something that binds them all together and when we find and destroy it…'

"**We break them**", Kyuubi finished, understanding. He was grinning darkly.

Naruto had already told Kyuubi his plan of retribution and Kyuubi had to hide his tears at how proud of his container he was. He honestly didn't think he could come up with a more devious plan himself.

'Exactly', Naruto told him, 'Now let's get going, we have work to do', he said before leaping through the forest. He was wearing a sinister smirk.

Soon, all will know of his name.

Soon, all of his enemies will tremble.

Soon, _all_ who have crossed him will learn the meaning of pain, suffering, and fear.

Most importantly, however, he would soon be with his beloved Angel once more.

'Ino, my love, soon I will hold you in my arms once more', he vowed, 'Once I have completed my plan, those who have wronged me will learn what it is to be **my** enemy.'

A/N: And that, as they say, is that.

I hope you all like the flashbacks!

In case you are wondering what Naruto's armored form looks like; picture Alex Mercer's armored form in _The Prototype_ game combined Renamon from the third season of _Digimon_ only taller, with armor in the place of fur. Also imagine a more Kyuubiish snout.

1: The fate of the former member of the Shinobazu is the same as the anime filler arc: with help, he faked his own death so that he could raise the orphans the Shinobazu had captured in peace (just a side note; it will have no actual effect on the story whatsoever in the future).

**Next time: The Prototype visits Konoha, encounter's familiar faces, gains a new traveling companion, and faces off against an old nemesis!**


	4. Chapter 2: Possible Revealtions

Disclaimer: I own neither Naruto, Prototype, or anything else featured in this chapter. If I did I wouldn't be writing this shit now would I?

Ch. 2: Possible Revelations

**Sorry I took so long! Enjoy!**

**Konoha: Two Days Later**

The council chamber was full of chatter as the council members were chattering amongst themselves about recent events.

The talking was silenced abruptly as Tsuande Senju entered the chamber.

'This had better be good…' she thought to herself, although she had a very good idea what this was about. She was in no mood to put up with whining at this point.

She sat down in her usual position during meetings and propped her hands against her face and sighed.

"Alright" she said in a bored tone, "I'm here. What's this all about?" she asked.

Danzo Shimura, ignoring the Sannin's lack of respect, stood up, "It has come to our attention that Aoi Rokushō, a shinobi from Amegakure and a missing-nin from Konoha, was supposedly killed almost two days ago. Is this true?" he asked although he already knew the answer.

Tsunade sighed and answered, "Yes it is true" she said before continuing, "although no body was found the amount of blood left at the sight was an amount no one could lose and live to tell about it and the team that discovered the sight performed a blood test that confirms it was Aoi's" she finished. She had sent the team to defend one of the contestants of a race that was to be held there and, while the team was successful, they had stumbled upon the battle field and performed the blood test.

A civilian member was about ask something when Tsunade interrupted him, "No, the Raijin was not found at the site of the Aoi's death, only scorch marks, senbon needles, and a destroyed senbon umbrella", she told him, answering his unasked question.

The council member sat down with a disappointed look on his face. Pretty much the entire council also shared the same disappointment.

Tsume Inuzuka then spoke up. "About fucking time", she said aloud (blunt as always), "He should have been killed years ago", she said voicing the opinion of many of the other council members.

"Agreed, Tsume-san", the normally silent Shibi Aburame amended, "Do we know the identity of his killer?" he then asked.

Tsunade nodded, "Due to the lack of a body and the large amount of bloodshed on the sight it can only be assumed that the enigmatic entity known only as 'the demon' was responsible", She explained.

This came as no surprise. Whenever the beast attacked it would often leave behind only a pool of blood and nothing else left of the victim. Most assumed the person had been eaten, but there were no scraps of flesh, bone, or cloth left behind, so this might not be true. There was also never any trail of blood leading from the site of each death and so it did not carry them away either.

The council took in this information for a moment.

Finally, one civilian spoke up, "Hokage-sama, what will be done in light of this issue?" He asked.

"Nothing" she answered simply. The civilians and elders began shouting.

Kaede Haruno spoke up, "What do mean 'nothing'?" she asked incredulously, "we cannot let that…that…THING carry the Nidaime's sword!" she shouted, with several others agreeing with her.

Tsunade glared at the pink haired woman, "And what is it you suppose we do?" she asked.

"We should send hunter-nin to track the demon down, kill it, reclaim the Raijin and Raiga's Lightning Fangs, and take the demon's body for study", Kaede answered loudly. Many agreed with this decision, especially Danzo, who wanted to see the creature's ability's tested. It would make a valuable addition to his ROOT division if it could be captured.

"We can't do that" Tsunade said simply.

"Why not?" several members shouted.

"Do the words 'political shit-storm' mean anything to you? This 'demon' is an ally of Sunagakure, among others, and if we attack it without provacation they could sever their alliance with us!" Tsunade yelled back while muttering "idiots" under her breath before continuing; "Besides there is no guarantee that Aoi still had the sword to on him to begin with. He could have sold it to the highest bidder or he could have given it to Ame when he joined them, so it is entirely possible that the 'demon' never acquired the sword", she finished in a much calmer voice.

The civilians became quiet for a moment. Then Danzo interjected, "Hokage-sama, whether it has the sword or not we cannot just stand by and do nothing. How long do you think it will take for this…creature to become a threat to our village? I think we should place it in the Bingo Book and-"

Tsuande cut him off, "And do what? Put a price on the creature's head when it has done nothing to harm us in the long term?" she asked while glaring at the old war hawk, who shrunk back into his seat, "Besides" she continued, "You've all heard what it's capable of, I'm not going to give it a reason to harm anyone in this village" Tsunade then cleared her throat, "Unless it commits a crime against us directly, this 'demon' will not be placed into the Bingo Book and no hunter-nin will be sent after it", she declared with a firm conviction.

Several council members tried to argue but Tsunade slammed her fist down onto the podium in front of her. The impact shook the entire room. The council quickly shut up and sat back down in their seats.

Tsunade then sighed before continuing, "Now that that's settled, is there anything else that needs to be discussed?" she asked in a frustrated tone.

Once again, Danzo stood up, "Yes there is" he said before continuing, "It has also come to the council's attention that the team that returned from River Country, returned with a small boy who has a bloodline capable of neutralizing the Byakugan among other things" he finished and then waited for Tsunade's answer.

Tsuande nodded, "Yes, he was brought back so that I could help heal his disability before deciding what should be done with him" she told them.

Danzo smirked, "Fortunately, that council has already made that decision" he stated.

"What do you mean?" Tsuande asked.

"The elders, including myself, along with the entire civilian council, have agreed to keep the boy within Konoha and then, when he is older, to use him in order to breed an entire clan with his bloodline" he answered proudly.

Tsunade was furious at these words, "What?" she shouted, "He's just a child!" she shouted at him and then glared at the elders and civilians.

Danzo's smirk grew, "Be that as it may, we cannot allow a bloodline like this one to fall into another villages hands."

The elders and civilians agreed whole heartedly with this, but the clan heads were disgusted by it.

Hiashi Hyuuga, while concerned by the fact that the boy's kekkai genkai could negate his clans Byakugan, was particularly against this because he _knew_ Danzo would use this in an attempt to gain a future advantage over the Hyuuga clan.

That can't happen.

Tsuande attempted to interrupt, "But-"

"My apologies, Hokage-sama, but the decision has already been made and is final" Danzo interrupted, "The boy will be kept locked up within this village until he is of proper breeding age and he will then be used as breeding stock" the war hawk stated triumphantly.

Tsunade, was even angrier at this but realized that she had no say in this. She quickly dismissed meeting and prepared to head over to the hospital in order to heal the disabled boy who would be used as nothing more than a tool by the council.

**Forest near Konoha: The Next Day**

Naruto Uzumaki Namikaze (aka, the Prototype) was leaping through the trees at a breakneck pace. He was fast approaching Konoha, his home. He decided to wait until he was about one mile away from the gates before shape shifting into an anonymous person and then walk the rest of the way.

While he ran, Naruto thought about how his powers had changed him in the last year.

His newfound abilities had caused a massive evolutionary upgrade to his entire being.

He was taller now; more so than any of his peers, and had lost all of his baby fat. His whisker marks were more defined and now had a rugged texture to them, rather than just being lines across his face. His hair was even spikier than before and it was slightly longer than before as well. This, along with his new clothing, made Naruto look almost exactly like his father. Kyuubi had been the one to point that out, to the blonde's glee.

As difficult as it was to believe, Naruto did not hate his father for what he had done to him. Well…he had at first, but when he looked back on what had happened and the sacrifice Minato Namikaze had to make in order to save his village, it really seemed like he didn't have much of a choice in the matter. Naruto thought he would probably have done the same thing, were he in his father's place. Speaking of sacrifices, Naruto wondered if his father would have so readily given his life if he knew how ungrateful the villagers would have been.

As you can probably tell, Naruto's relationship with his inner demon has also improved. Kyuubi was absolutely thrilled with the amount of bloodshed his container was unleashing and was more than willing to play along with it. The beast had become something of an annoying older brother to the blonde, bitchy yet helpful at different times.

Naruto had made his mindscape larger, transforming it into a vast open field with a large forest, with Kyuubi's seal being transformed from a cage into a collar, so that he could roam freely. In exchange, Kyuubi taught his vessel how to show past events to others through a powerful genjutsu he had developed years ago. He called it: Demonic Genjutsu: Through the Eyes of the Mind. Each vision from this genjutsu was shown from an observational, almost cinematic, point of view and felt so real that it was nearly impossible for anyone to doubt whether the event actually took place or not. This was useful, especially in describing things that are almost impossible to explain in words. Naruto often used this genjutsu on himself, to look over previous battles and observe ways of how he could better improve himself.

Kyuubi had also told his vessel much of his past, but refused to explain his origin or why he attacked Konoha. He only told Naruto that it wasn't his intention, nor did he have a choice in the matter. The blonde decided to drop the subject, but planned to ask the biju in the future after they trusted each other more.

Along with the changes in his physical appearance, Naruto had also come a long way in overcoming his more troubling obstacles when it came to being a ninja. Where he once had piss poor chakra control, Naruto's body had now evolved so that he could control his chakra perfectly. He could now make regular clones perfectly with little to no effort. Also, where he once was impatient and brash, he was now calm and collected. His patience was now well controlled and he could think more clearly while in the middle of a fight instead of using just his instincts and spur of the moment strategies.

Naruto's physical abilities had also risen immensely.

His newfound physical strength was incredible. At full strength, he was almost as strong as Tsunade was and Kyuubi told him he was getting stronger over time.

His speed, agility, and stamina had also increased as well. He was now just as fast as Lee without his weights on and his already enhanced stamina allowed him to keep this speed going for days at a time.

He also found he had a Dojutsu, of sorts. His eyes remained the same but this new form of sight allowed Naruto to see the heat of all things, animal or human, when activated. This allowed him to see his prey from a distance and even allowed him to see them through walls. He could also see across vast distances in a telescopic-like vision that he could focus in or out.

Despite his adaptations, Naruto still found his newfound powers difficult to control. It took a great deal of concentration in order to will his limbs to change into the various weapons he now used. This changed after about two weeks of practice and now the changes come at will with minimal effort. So far he had six different forms his arms could take.

The first form he had discovered was the clawed form. This form increased the size of his hands greatly and provided a 30cm-long claw on each finger on each hand. The claws were incredibly sharp and were capable of cutting through almost anything, including steel. This was the form Naruto used the most.

The second form was a form he dubbed the "Hammerfist". When used, his fists would change into mallet shaped clubs that were immensely powerful. The hammers could smash through any defense with ease and could create powerful shockwaves that felt like miniature earthquakes. Unfortunately, they were also extremely heavy and unwieldy and thus only used to shatter defenses and create shockwaves in order to knock foes off of their feet. He was still trying to create a style that allowed this form to be of more practical use, but, so far, he had little success.

The third form took the form of a gauntlet that launched out a strong and sharp whip-like chain with a grasping claw at the end of it. This form had an amazing reach and could stretch incredible distances. Naruto decided to call this form the "Whipfist". Not only was it useful for grappling objects or people from a distance, it also provided a long range attack that was both dangerous and difficult to predict. The whip was razor sharp and could decapitate foes with ease.

The fourth form, the gauntlet/spear form, was an idea Naruto came up with on a whim. It provided lethal offensive blades while it formed strong defensive armor around the arms. It was still a work in progress, but Naruto decided to call it the "Spearfist".

The fifth form was his most recent form was called the "Drillfist". The blonde had gotten the idea for this form off of one of the members of the Shinobazu, who used a clawed gauntlet on his right arm to drill through practically anything. True to its name, the form involved transforming one of his arms into an actual drill, instead of the clawed-shaped gauntlet the missing-nin used. It had taken awhile, but Naruto eventually found a way to make the drill rotate and, eventually, spin. He proceeded to test it out on Raiga's Lightning Strike Armor, which proved successful, as it had not only pierced the armor, but also killed the man himself. That was the hardest substance he had used it against and, thus, Naruto did not know the drill's limit as of yet.

The sixth and final form was the shield form. Unlike the previous forms, the shield form is for the purpose of defense rather than offense. As the name states, the form provides an organic, iron-hard shield around either arm. This shield was reliable and had yet to be breached by any foe Naruto has faced off against, though he had to admit that Raiga had come pretty close with his Fangs of Lightning and Lightning Ball techniques. Even before that particular fight, Naruto was certain the shield wasn't impenetrable and often wondered when he would meet an adversary that could break it. He hoped that day wouldn't come for a long time.

Naruto had been able to cope with his weapon forms easily enough. He was trying to develop individual fighting styles for each form but he is still working on it.

Naruto's armored form and consuming ability terrified him at first.

The first time he had transformed into his armored form, Naruto almost fainted. He calmed down a great deal when he found that this change came at will and was easily reversed. He was pleased by how durable this form was and even more so when he discovered the amount of fear this form created in his foes. Naruto was in this form almost constantly (even while sleeping), partly because it provided him with an intimidating appearance and a solid defense, but mostly because he didn't want anyone to see his true form. If anyone saw him in his human appearance and lived to tell the tale, they would describe his appearance and soon his face would be all over the Elemental Nations, alerting Konoha to the fact that he was still alive.

That was something he could not afford and would not tolerate as it would hamper his plan of retribution.

There were, however, a few people he trusted enough to reveal himself to.

So far, the only people who knew the "demon's" (he hadn't come up with his new title back then) true identity were Gaara and his siblings, as well as Gaara's student Matsuri (whom he had rescued). Naruto remembered their mutual surprise and happiness to his sudden resurrection and their mutual anger when Naruto told them about Kakashi's betrayal. Gaara had offered to help his old friend and fellow demon container rip the cyclopean and his precious student apart, slowly, and even offered to completely cut off all ties with Konoha. Naruto declined these offers and told Gaara that his retribution was something he had to accomplish on his own. The idea for Suna to cut off ties with Konoha, however, was tempting and told Gaara he would think about it. He asked the Sand Siblings and Matsuri to keep his survival a secret to all, especially to anyone from Konoha. They agreed and wished Naruto good luck on his journey as he left.

Naruto smiled as he remembered the way Matsuri stared at Gaara. It reminded him of how he and Ino looked whenever they stared into each other's eyes. He could tell Matsuri truly loved the newly appointed Kazekage and hoped that Gaara would one day be able to find happiness with her, the same happiness he had found with Ino.

Back to Naruto's new abilities, the one he had the most trouble coping with was the ability to "consume" the dead or dying and gaining their memories and appearance. The first time Naruto did this; he had fallen to his hands and knees and thrown up, thinking he had just eaten the victim.

While attempting to forget about his grief, he kept his mind focused on happy memories from his past. As he did this he noticed he had other memories, different memories, memories that were not his own. He looked down at the pool of his victim's blood before him…and that's when he noticed that he looked exactly like the man he had just killed.

After he and Kyuubi searched his mind and memories, they came to the conclusion that the unknown memories belonged to the man he had consumed. Kyuubi explained that he didn't actually eat the victim, but rather assimilated or absorbed him into his own body and somehow gained his memories, talents, and skills as well as his appearance. Over the next few weeks, Naruto continued to consume more of his victims and soon began to see the potential of this particular skill. By consuming his victims he could gain a great deal of combat experience and skill through their memories. This means that, by consuming certain individuals that excel in certain fields, he could gain a lifetime's worth of experience in that particular field. For example, when Naruto consumed Raiga, he gained Raiga's level of swordsmanship and his control of Lightning Release, as if he had been the man himself his entire life. In short, where it would take a lifetime for most, Naruto could become a master of any specialty in an instant. In addition, he found that, by doing this, he would regain chakra and recover from any injury almost instantly.

He could gain the knowledge of anyone he consumed as long as the victims brain was intact.

The blonde thought about the various abilities and items he had gained from the people he had consumed. So far, the most noteworthy abilities and weapons he had acquired were, several earth, lightning, water, fire, and wind release techniques and affinities, the nail techniques he received from the thief Gosunkugi in Stone Country, the assimilation techniques he acquired from one of the members of the Wandering Ninja group in Bird Country, the summoning techniques and level of water control, the magnetic ninjutsu, and the ice ninjutsu he had taken from the Janin in Vegetable Country, the weaponry he had "appropriated" from the Four Celestial Symbols Men, the Shiin clan sound techniques and the ocarina he had acquired from Menma (the name Naruto had given his late friend), the wire, drill, and umbrella techniques he had acquired from the Shinobazu, Raiga's jutsu and Lightning Fangs, and, finally, the abilities of the Ame genin and Aoi, as well as the latter's stolen Raijin.

All and all, Naruto had acquired several lifetimes' worth of experience and abilities in a little over a year.

Anyway, back to the consuming ability…

At first, Naruto had difficulty sorting through the newly gained memories, but with Kyuubi's help he soon found a way to keep the memories from overwhelming his mind. He still had to be careful though, he couldn't consume too many people in quick succession. The pair agreed to wait at least five minutes between every two or three consumptions before continuing.

Speaking of Naruto, he had just arrived about one mile from Konoha and had stopped. He took the form of a bandit he had consumed during his massacre of the camp in Wave. This form wore average civilian clothes, had matching brown hair and eyes, and wore his long hair in a small ponytail. Aside from the large scar slashed across his face, he had an unassuming form about himself. After checking his appearance, voice, and fake identification, he exited the forest and began walking along the main trail to Konoha.

He soon arrived at the main gates where he was greeted by the two gate guards whom he gave his (fake) identification to. When they asked why he was here, Naruto decided to test their intelligence. He told them he was an aspiring writer who was writing a book about the different ramen flavors of the Elemental Nations and had heard that Konoha had some of the best. Amazingly, they bought his story and let him walk through the gates unhindered and told him to try Ichiraku's for the best ramen in the village. Naruto held in a laugh and told them he'd keep that in mind.

'Morons', he thought and looked around. Things hadn't changed much, if at all. He shrugged and continued forward.

After about ten minutes, Naruto decided to visit the Ichiraku Ramen stand, partly to see Teuchi and Ayame and partly because he was hungry.

He soon arrived at the stand and sat down. He saw Teuchi in the back cooking while Ayame approached him with a smile on her pretty face, but Naruto could see a look of sadness behind it.

"Hello sir welcome to Ichiraku's" she said cheerfully, "What can I get for you?" she asked.

"I'd like…a bowl of this 'Naruto Uzumaki Deluxe Special' that is shown on the menu." He answered politely, pausing to go over the menu. He had to hide his smile when he saw that an item on the menu was named after him, although he was immensely flattered by it.

Ayame's expression faltered a bit before she nodded and disappeared into the kitchen.

After a few minutes, he received his ramen and quickly finished it before saying "thank you" before leaving a 100% tip for them. Naruto left quickly before they realized how much money he had left them.

He continued walking and listening when he saw a hated but familiar face in front of him walking towards him. Someone who he barely able to restrain himself from murdering where he stood.

Kakashi Hatake. He was walking absentmindedly through the streets while reading his favorite _Icha Icha _novel.

Knowing the cyclopean moron always carried at least two of the novel series on him at all times, Naruto decided to ruin the Jonin's day. He walked straight towards Kakashi and deliberately bumped into him.

"My sincerest apologies Shinobi-san" Naruto said in a polite tone, "that was completely my fault."

Kakashi stared at him for a few seconds before giving off one of his signature "eye-smiles", "Don't worry about it, besides, it was my fault" the cyclops said, "I should have watched where I was going."

He then turned away and continued walking. Naruto smirked and kept walking the direction he was going, "Yes, you should have Shinobi-san" he said under his breath while looking at the cover of a certain orange novel he was holding, "You really should have" he finished while grinning.

It shouldn't be surprising that Naruto had been able to pickpocket to famous "Copy-nin" considering he was forced to steal and pickpocket for several months after he was kicked out of orphanage when he was five, before he gained his apartment.

After another 10 minutes of walking naruto, along with the rest of Fire Country, heard someone shout "WHERE IS IT? WHERE IS IIIIIIIT?" in anguish.

Naruto laughed to himself and kept going. He walked into a deserted ally and shifted into another identity in case Kakashi was able to connect the dots. Bumping into people is how pickpockets work after all.

After walking for a little while longer, he heard a commotion nearby.

"Beat it Sakura", he heard a familiar voice say before he sped up toward the location of the voice.

When he arrived he discovered a group of his friends standing outside of the BBQ place Ino had told him she and her teammates would hang out at after missions. The group consisted of Team 10 and Team 8 glaring down a surprised Sakura. Clearly, Team 8 and Team 10 had just emerged from the restaurant and Sakura had tried to speak to them. The voice he heard had come from Kiba. Naruto hid in the shadows of the alleyway he had emerged from, while using a camouflage technique he had received from another member of the Wandering Ninja (which also hid his scent from Kiba and Akamaru), and listened in on the soon-to-become argument, wondering why his friends would act so rudely towards his former teammate.

"Oh come on guys, it's been a year, surely you can't still be mad at me", Sakura said in a shocked tone.

Ino scoffed, "What did you expect? That we would just get over it and be glad it happened? We aren't heartless bitches like _you_", she spat the last word at her former friend.

Naruto's heart throbbed upon seeing the girl he loved so much standing nearby, no matter how angry she was and what she was angry about. He noticed that her hair had grown back to its original ponytail and couldn't help but smile and become slightly turned on by it, remembering what she had told him over a year ago.

Sakura was shocked, "What? You…you still have broken free of his control? It must be more serious than I thought", she said the last part mostly to herself.

"We're still here Sakura" Choji pointed out.

The pinkette sighed, "What does it take before you see the truth?" she yelled at them, "When are you all going to wake up and realize that he was nothing but a monster that should have been killed the day he was born?"

Naruto was shocked, 'Does she mean…me?' he thought to himself. He continued to listen.

Kiba and a slightly larger Akamaru growled at her, "You should leave now, Uchiha whore, before we decide to rip you apart where you stand."

The two teams unleashed an impressive amount of KI (Killing Intent) at the pink haired girl, who took a step back; she knew full well she was outnumbered.

After a moment of silence, Sakura regained her composure and shrugged, "Fine, if you all want to be under the Kyuubi's control that's fine," she said rudely, "and Ino-pig, if you and Hinata want to be demon whores that's also fine", she sighed, "it's a shame that you can't see Sasuke-kun for the hero that he is."

Naruto now knew it was him his former teammate was referring to. His anger was gradually rising.

"Sasuke isn't a hero!" Hinata shouted, "He's a selfish, spoiled brat, and you're nothing but his worthless _bitch_!" she shouted, spitting the last word at her. Naruto was surprised that Hinata had shouted such a hateful comment toward Sakura, and even more surprised that she had done so without stuttering. So surprised, in fact, that he had forgotten about his anger towards Sakura for a brief moment.

Naruto was not surprised at her defending him otherwise. He had long since figured out her feelings for him (he had banged his head up against a tree for about five minutes while muttering "stupid" over and over again after he figured it out, something that was so obvious to begin with). After thinking it through, he realized he cared for her too; it explained why he was so quick to encourage her during her fight with Neji and why he vowed to avenge her after she was beaten to near death by her cousin. It was also why he thought she was so adorable when she tapped her index fingers together and stuttered while embarrassed. He did not act on his feelings, however, seeing as he was already dating Ino at the time and didn't want to cheat on her. He decided not to tell Hinata and hoped she would get over him and move on, though this did not, and would not, change the way he felt about her.

"Take that back!" Sakura screeched back at the (formerly) shy Hyuuga heiress.

"Why should she?" Ino asked, "It is _true_ after all."

The others laughed at Sakura who was sputtering uncontrollably at that last statement.

"You're in no position to pick a fight with us Sakura", Shikamaru pointed out after the pinkette began unleashing killing intent towards them; "You should leave…NOW, before you do something troublesome."

Sakura, while still angry, turned and left, but not before saying, "You'll see…you'll see how wrong you are and how Naruto being dead is a good thing. Then you'll come crying, begging for me to forgive your stupidity and apologizing for insulting Sasuke-kun."

At these words, Kiba was about to lunge before Shino put a hand on his shoulder and shook his head. Kiba reluctantly calmed down and left with the group. They didn't need any more trouble at the moment.

Naruto, meanwhile, was still fuming. 'I did everything for her', he thought, 'I help her overpower Ino-chan's mind switch technique, I saved her worthless hide from Gaara, and I defeated Sasuke for her…AND THIS IS WHAT I GET IN RETURN?' he began releasing a massive amount of KI. Though he was no longer in love with her, he still held Sakura in high regard and this betrayal was just as shocking and infuriating as the others.

Kyuubi quickly chimed in, "**Kit, calm down! You're releasing KI laced with my chakra**" he told his container, "**If you keep this up the entire village will be able to feel it!**"

Naruto nodded and slowly began to calm down. After a short while, he had gotten control of himself.

'So' he thought, 'Sakura is just like the others huh? Well then…I know just how to make her suffer…she will watch Sasuke die slowly before I make her beg for her own death' he concluded to himself.

Kyuubi nodded and mentally patted his jailer on the back, "**That's the spirit kit**" he said, "**Just wait until the time is right and then…BAM!**" he finished while laughing manically.

Naruto mentally laughed as well, 'Yeah your right' he thought, 'she will pay. When the time is right…She. Will. Pay', he vowed.

He then continued walking through the village, keeping his ears open for any useful information.

Meanwhile, he was thinking.

Ino had looked upset at his death when he saw her and he wanted to let her know he was alright so badly…

But he couldn't.

He could not risk revealing himself to anyone until he was ready to take his revenge, not even to her.

Though it hurt him to do it, he had to remain incognito until the time came.

While he thought this he heard someone whispering nearby, "Hey did you hear about that kid the Uchiha and his team brought back from River Country?"

"Yeah, everyone has…what about him?" another voice asked in a whisper.

Naruto located the source of the whisper, two unassuming men in shinobi garb sitting at a table outside of a café, and sat down on a bench on the other side of the street. He focused his enhanced hearing on the private conversation.

"The kid has a bloodline that can somehow disable the Byakugan", the first man said.

The second man was shocked, "Is that even possible?" he asked, still whispering.

The first man nodded "It would appear so the Hokages going to heal him and then Danzo-sama and the council are going to use him to breed a new clan when he's older" he said.

"So Danzo-sama will have yet another tool to bring the Leaf Village to glory" the second man mused.

"Indeed, soon the world will recognize Konoha as the supreme power throughout the Elemental nations under Danzo-sama's leadership", the first whispered proudly. It was at that moment that a waitress brought their order and they began eating.

Across the street, Naruto was fuming, but was keeping it under control. He knew of the boy they were speaking of. He thought the child, Ranmaru, was going to be returned to the village Raiga had enslaved people from.

He should have known better.

Now, Naruto had to ask himself…

Would he, Naruto Uzumaki Namikaze, the Prototype, the defender of the innocent and the slaughterer of the wicked, let these arrogant fools use a mere child as a pawn in such a heartless way?

Only three words went through Naruto's mind at that moment: 'No fucking way.'

He was not going to let this happen to anyone, especially to a child. He would not allow anyone, especially Danzo, a man whom he had always hated, to use this boy as a tool for their own ends.

Naruto waited for Danzo's men to finish. When they did, they got up and left in separate directions.

Naruto tailed the one who seemed to know more about the issue and bided his time.

When the man turned into an alleyway he went up in a cloud of smoke and reappeared in ANBU attire only his mask was completely black. There was a kanji for "root" printed on his ANBU vest and mask.

Just as the man was about to begin his patrol, he felt a strong hand clamp around his mouth and a blade pierce his body. The ROOT ANBU's cry of pain was nothing more than a muffled gasp, due to his mouth being covered, even through the mask. He looked down only to see what looked like a spear coming out of his chest.

The man then stiffened when he heard a voice whisper into his ear.

A demonic voice.

"**Tsk, tsk, tsk, you shouldn't have let your guard down**" it said in a playful tone before chuckling.

Before the ROOT ANBU could react a swirl of dark red and black covered his entire body and began to pull him in.

The ROOT felt nothing but agonizing pain…

And then…he felt nothing.

**Outside the Hidden Prison in Konoha, later that night:**

A shinobi guard was standing outside the secret entrance to the prison. He sighed from boredom and whipped out a pack of cigarettes. He grabbed one out of the pack and lit it. He slowly took a drag from it before sighing again.

"Great" he complained under his breath, "just fucking great, out all the positions I could've gotten reassigned to it had to be prison guard duty" he said before he inhaled another breath of the cigarette and then exhaling it, "And it just _had_ to be on the nightshift too", he finished sarcastically.

He suddenly heard a noise nearby and stood up. He looked towards the location of the sound.

All of a sudden, he heard a demonic voice behind him say, "**The nighty-nightshift.**"

"Huh?" the guard turned around…and blacked out as an armored fist hit him in the face.

**Inside the Prison:**

Naruto, in his armored form, quickly made his way into the prison after knocking out the guard and began making his way through it. The hallways were dark, lit only by torchlight. They were also cramped so he used his chakra to stick to the ceiling, and began crawl slowly along it on all fours, freezing whenever guards passed underneath him.

He soon found a ventilation duct and slowly and carefully, opened it and crawled inside before closing it again.

Naruto then began silently crawling through the ducts, 'Now then', he thought, 'before I can release this kid, I have to find out where he is' he thought to himself as he continued crawling through the tunnels, 'from the look of that drone's memories, this place is huge. It could take hours to find him' he then had an idea, 'Unless… unless I consume a person who knows every detail of what goes on here. But who?' He couldn't just consume random guards…well he _could_,but it would be inefficient.

He then realized something, this place is a prison and all prisons have one thing in common. 'The warden!' he thought, 'he'll have the information I need…I just hope he deserves to die.'

After about ten minutes, of searching for the warden's office, Naruto found himself above the prison armory and decided to ransack it. He used his thermal vision to scan the area. 'Good' he thought, 'no guards other than the one outside the door ', he then opened the duct and carefully lowered himself into the room. He looked around at the room's contents before mentally scoffing, 'the security in this prison is shit', he thought to himself with Kyuubi agreeing with him, 'The vents are huge and easy to sneak through and they should have placed guards inside the armory as well. Oh well, easier for me' he said while grinning he began looking through the confiscated items.

Kyuubi was confused, "**Why are you here?**" the biju asked, "**You are jeopardizing the prison break plan!**" the beast finished.

'Because', he explained, 'I'm trying to find something that was used against my former team over a year ago, something that might prove useful in the near future…besides the less they have, the more we benefit' he finished. Kyuubi mentally agreed.

After a few minutes of looking, he found what he was searching for. He pulled out two large claw-like gauntlets that had shuriken chains within them.

Naruto smiled, 'These gauntlets once belonged to the infamous "Demon Brothers" Gozu and Meizu' he thought. He then opened up a scroll and sealed them, 'these should be wielded by a _real _demon' he thought. Kyuubi laughed at that last thought. Naruto leaped back into the vent silently and closed it after stealing a few more confiscated items (basic shinobi equipment).

After crawling for another fifteen to twenty minutes, Naruto found himself in the vent straight the warden's office. Shaking his head at the stupidity of whoever designed this place, he opened the vent quietly and stuck his head out. There, sitting at his desk was the warden. He currently had his feet up on his desk and was reading a familiar orange novel. Naruto was amazed; this man was read smut while he was _supposed_ to be working. The blonde shook his head and then got an idea.

Warden Koben was sitting at his desk reading his favorite novel, giggling pervertedly every other moment or so. This year had been great, the demon that killed his wife was dead and he held a high position in Konoha that required little to no actual work.

All was right in the universe.

A sudden, light thud brought him out of his train of thought. He turned around in his chair to find small orange rectangle lying on the ground in front of him. Koben got up and walked over to this strange anomaly. It was an orange book. His eyes widened when he saw the title, _Icha Icha: The 10__th__ Year Anniversary Addition_. He picked it up and examined it carefully and looked around. "Where did you come from?" he asked out loud. He couldn't believe his luck! This _Icha Icha_ was incredibly rare, supposedly there were only fifty published in the world! He grinned and opened the book and giggled at it's content. "Where have you been all my life" Koben said as he walked back to his desk. That Toad Sage may be a demon lover, but _damn_ was he a genius!

The warden was so absorbed by his new book he didn't notice a figure drop out of the vent above where the book was dropped behind him. The figure was silently creeping closer to it's target.

"Man the boy's at the bar aren't going to believe thi-!"

Before Koben could finish, he felt someone or something grab him from behind and place a hand around his throat.

"**I can't believe how stupid you are**" a demonic voice whispered into his ear.

The warden was panicking; the book was a trap and stepped right into it. The hand around his throat prevented from calling for help.

"Who are you?" he gasped out with the little air he had.

"**The last thing you'll never see**" the voice said before ripping the warden's throat open.

Before he could react to this, he felt himself being pulled in by an invisible force.

Naruto had performed a quick and clean kill. He had killed and consumed the warden so quickly that there was no blood left behind. He then closed his eyes as he felt the memories flood in.

Everything came in brief flashes but Naruto understood it all. Koben, he remembered that name. It was a name he had heard during one of his usual beatings he received as a child, he remembered the name being used to congratulate someone for hitting him in the leg with a kunai to prevent him from escaping.

It appeared Naruto had been right; this man did deserve to die.

Naruto searched deeper into the deceased man's memories, bypassing the deceased wife and the demon hating nonsense before he found what he was looking for.

_Koben stood at the entrance to the prison waiting impatiently for the "special package" they were to receive. The sooner they got this over with the sooner he could get back to reading._

_The doors to the prison opened and in walked in two armed guards carrying a frightened child between them._

"_A kid?" Koben asked, unbelieving, "A fucking kid? You can't be serious."_

_One of the Anbu looked at Koben, "Completely serious, the council wants this little punk locked up tight until ordered otherwise. Is there a problem with that?" he said in a menacing tone._

_Koben held up his hands, "Take it easy!" he said jokingly, "there's no problem here" he said before looking at two of the prison guards behind him, "You two!" he shouted. Both guards stood up abruptly. "Take our 'guest' down to D-wing and lock him up tight! If anything happens to him, I'm taking it out of your asses!"_

_The guards took the boy away from the Anbu and moved him towards D-wing._

Naruto shut the memory out and looked back at the desk. He saw the book Koben had been reading before he was distracted. He smirked and decided to leave a little parting gift for whoever came into the office. He picked up the wardens book and shifted one of his fingers into a claw. He then proceeded to carve a message on the cover before butting it back on the desk. Naruto then retrieved the book he stole from Kakashi and placed into a hidden seal on hand where he kept all of his "trophies". Naruto jumped back into vent, closed it, and then began moving again.

Soon afterward, he found the cell block he was looking for. He opened the vent and began climbing along the ceiling while moving down the cell block.

Eventually he found Ranmaru in cell D-13. Although he had the same clothes and hairstyle he had had from when Naruto had last seen him, the boy looked terrible, covered in grime; he looked like he had lost a loved one, which was true in a sense. Raiga had been the person who he cared about more than anything, and Naruto had killed him. The boy was also sacred of his surroundings and was shivering.

Shaking off the thought, Naruto quietly dropped to the ground in front of Ranmaru's cage. Though Naruto didn't make a sound, the boy saw him drop out of the corner of his eye and was shocked to see who it was. There, standing in all of its glory, was the creature who murdered his precious person.

The five year old boy backed up against the wall, "Y-you? W-what are y-you d-doing here?" he asked, frightened.

Naruto (still in his armored form) kneeled in front of the cell, "**I'm here to break you out**" he answered simply.

Ranmaru was confused "B-but w-why? H-haven't you d-done enough? You've already t-taken R-raiga-sempai, my p-purpose, from me, and n-now you wish to f-free me? You wish to f-further insult me?" the boy asked loudly while continuing to stutter.

"**Shh**", Naruto told him, "**I came to free you because of what the village's council has planned for you**" he explained.

Ranmaru was even more confused, "What do you mean?" he asked without stuttering this time.

Naruto sighed and told the boy about what Danzo, the other elders, and the civilian council intended for him to do.

Ranmaru was shocked but this did explain why the Hokage looked so guilty and why she had been so quiet while she healed him, "B-but why?" the boy asked, "Why would someone do something so horrible to a child?" he asked.

"**Because they are selfish and will do anything in order to gain power, even exploiting an innocent like yourself**" Naruto growled before calming himself and continuing, "**But I can free you**" he explained, "**I can prevent this from happening, I can give you a home**", he paused before continuing, "**I am sorry I took Raiga from you, but I could not allow him to harm innocents any longer. You say that your purpose was to help Raiga? My purpose is to help the innocent, like you, and, if you wish, you can do that too. I will take you with me and teach you, raise you to do so. I can be the family you have always wanted. The choice is yours**", Naruto finished.

Ranmaru was amazed, this being was willing to put himself at risk in order to save him from a fate worse than death and then offered to be his family? Ranmaru looked into his savior's demonic red eyes and saw no amount of deception in them.

Ranmaru then decided what to do.

"Okay", the boy said simply, "I will go with you and learn to protect others like you do…sempai" he added at the end.

Naruto smiled and stood up, "**Alright then**" he said grabbing onto the cell door, "**Stand back, I'm going to rip this door open.**"

Ranmaru nodded and backed away from the door. Naruto then proceeded to use his superhuman strength to rip the cell door off of its hinges.

That was when the fit hit the shan (sorry, just a phrase one of my college professors uses).

An alarm started blaring loudly and red lights started flashing brightly.

"**Shit!**" Naruto yelled, "**We have to go NOW!**" he shouted before scooping up Ranmaru into his arms and proceeding to bolt down the corridor as fast as he could.

As he went he saw guards rushing to their posts, wondering what was happening.

He turned left and saw a group of guards, who were shocked to see him, head straight for him trying to prevent his escape.

"**Hold on!**" Naruto told Ranmaru who nodded and gripped onto his savior tighter.

Naruto dodged one guard by jumping off the wall while performing a spinning kick on another right in the face as he landed before he continued to run.

The guards of this prison had no hope of catching up to him at his current speed, but he kept going, trying to avoid the guards emerging from the paths in front of him. He made sure to memorize the trail he took and knew exactly how to get to the exit.

He dodged more guards while knocking aside others. When he turned the corner that would lead him to the exit, saw more than a dozen guards blocking his path, weapons raised.

Despite this, Naruto kept going. He then shifted Ranmaru's body to one of his arms, "**Hang on! This is gonna be bumpy!**" Ranmaru nodded and braced himself.

Naruto then shifted his free arm into a shield and held it out in front of him. The guards were shocked but couldn't react in time.

Naruto barreled through the guards, using his shield as a battering ram. Guards were sent flying in all directions, unable to match his strength.

Naruto had been right, it was _very_ bumpy.

Naruto then smashed through the steel exit door he had entered, shifted his arm back to normal, shifted Ranmaru back into both of his arms, and then proceeded to sprint towards the village gates knowing he had no chance of sneaking out with a child in his arms while the village on full alert. He could already hear the alarms sounding.

He decided to speed through town, knowing the ANBU would not use dangerous jutsu if civilians were nearby.

Naruto then nimbly began to weave his way through the panicked crowds, not an easy feat to perform while still in his armored form.

"**Scuse me! Pardon me! Coming through! Look out! Sorry 'bout that!**" were among the things he said to the confused and frightened people ran past and weaved through.

He avoided hitting anyone and continued running.

Ranmaru, free of the cell that prevented him from using chakra, then used his kekkai-genkai in order to see behind them, "Sempai" he said loud enough so that his newly dubbed sempai could hear him, "There are about fifteen masked shinobi approaching us from behind!" he told his savior.

The boy was still astounded at how fast they were going!

"**ANBU**" Naruto stated simply before saying, "**Hang on!**" as he began to move even faster.

The ANBU following them were quickly finding it difficult to keep up with the duo. 'Damn, this thing is fast', they all thought to themselves.

Meanwhile, outside the Yamanaka Flower Shop, Ino had just locked the store up for the night and began walking home when she heard shouting coming from behind her. She turned to see a large figure holding something in its arms run straight towards her with several smaller figures following behind it.

Ino knew she could not get out of the way in time and braced herself for the figure to ram into her. But this did not happen; the figured leapt over her and flipped through the air. Time seemed to slow down as Ino looked up at…whatever this was that jumped over her and the small boy it was carrying. She looked into its eyes and it looked into hers. She also saw the little boy it was carrying mouth "Sorry". Time then resumed its normal pace as the being landed behind her while rolling to soften the impact before continuing to run without its speed decreasing in the slightest. A few seconds later the ANBU chasing it also blew right by her.

Ino was confused, to say the least, and continued to stare after them as they disappeared into the distance.

Ino Yamanaka had only one thought on her mind, 'What the fuck just happened?'

She never even noticed the alarms going off until now.

Back with Naruto, the armored teen could see the village gates before him.

"**Hold on boy!**" he shouted, "**We're almost there!**"

But just then more than two dozen ANBU stood in their way with the village gates closing behind them. Naruto would not be able to stop them this time.

"**Shit!**" he shouted, thinking there was no way out. He never stopped running all the while. 'I need a way out of this', he thought in that same second.

But as he shouted, he felt demonic chakra travel through his mouth. His cry of anger sounded like a banshee wailing and visible sound waves emitted from it.

The sound waves hit the crowded ANBU with a force that sent them flying back.

'Okay' the now shocked blonde Jinchuuiki thought to himself, 'that wasn't what I had in mind…but it'll do' he finished as he rushed through the dazed and scattered ANBU just as the gates closed.

He kept running for several more miles until he was sure they were safe. He then skidded to a halt and looked back.

Ranmaru looked up at him, "Are we safe now sempai?" the boy asked.

Naruto looked down at him and smiled, "**Yep, we made it**" he said triumphantly.

Ranmaru smiled before passing out. Naruto laughed. It had been a long day for both of them and it had taken its toll on the five year old boy.

Naruto took a deep breath before continuing forward, looking for a secluded place in the forest where they could make camp and settle down for the night while making a mental note to ask Kyuubi what that blast he had made was at a later date.

**Konoha Council Chamber: The next morning**

The council, as usual, was in an uproar. Why? Because the boy they had intended to use as breeding stock had escaped last night with the help of the infamous "demon".

Tsunade slammed her fists into her podium, "WILL YOU ALL JUST SHUT UP!" she shouted at the suddenly frightened council.

The council soon quieted down before one civilian stood up, "Hokage-sama, we must send hunter-nin after the beast! We cannot let this monster steal what rightfully belongs to this village!" he said with several others agreeing with him.

This turned out to be a very poor choice of words.

Tsuande glared at the man, who shrunk back into his seat, "Belongs? You speak of the boy as if he were property!" she shouted at him.

Danzo spoke up "What the child is treated as is irrelevant, what is important is that he be retrieved and returned to the village, and the demon be killed, or better yet captured, for study", the old war hawk finished while getting agreements from the other elders and civilians. Danzo himself was more angry than usual, first one of his ROOT goes missing and now his latest pawn in his plan to overthrow Tsunade had escaped the village. Could this day possibly get any worse for him?

"You're all so troublesome" an annoyed Shikaku Nara sighed before continuing when he saw he had gotten everyone's attention, "This 'demon' broke into a maximum security prison, apparently killed the warden while leaving no trace behind, smashed its way through the prison guards, outran our top ANBU, and escaped the village all while carrying a small child in its arms and you want to send hunter-nin after it? It scattered almost 30 ANBU with a single attack. We have no idea what else this thing is capable of and sending hunter-nin after it could get them killed", he explained simply before leaning back in his seat while hearing the other clan heads agree with him.

The part about the warden made them shudder. After everyone had calmed down some of the guards checked his office wondering why he hadn't issued orders over the intercom during the prison break. When they entered his office, they found nothing. They noticed the orange book on the desk and saw that a message had been carved into the cover.

_It didn't make him blind, but now he'll never see!_

Strange words, to be sure.

Koharu spoke next, "It still makes no sense. Why would this thing break the boy out of prison after it killed his sensei?" she asked, "If it wanted to kill him it would have done so inside the prison."

The council members thought for a moment but came up with nothing.

After a moment, Danzo cleared his throat, "Whatever it's reasons may be, it has still committed crimes against our village and should be placed in the Bingo Book at the very least" he said, getting agreements from the other council members.

Tsunade sighed, "Fine." She said frustrated, "The 'demon' will be placed into the Bingo Book as an A-ranked nin with a 'capture on sight' order on its head. But there will be no hunter-nin sent after it until we have a better understanding of its abilities", she finished.

Danzo was mentally scheming, 'No matter' he thought, 'I've already sent my ROOT to capture the beast, they should be reporting back soon enough.'

"Now then" Tsunade continued clearing her throat, "We must also discuss the matter of the prisoners who escaped during the confusion last night" she said.

The council was shocked at this turn of events. No one had realized this fact until just this morning.

After a brief moment of silence Inoichi Yamanaka asked, "Who are the escapees?"

"The traitor Mizuki along with Fuujin and Raijin, the Legendary Stupid Brothers" Tsunade answered.

The council was even more shocked. A former subordinate of Orochimaru and a duo that rivaled, perhaps even surpassed, the Godaime Hokage in terms of strength? This wasn't good.

Homura spoke up, "What is to be done about this?" he asked.

"Two teams are to be sent after them later this afternoon with the goal of bringing them back alive" Tsuande answered.

The council seemed to agree with this.

On that note Tsunade dismissed them while being thankful that Ranmaru had escaped.

**Inside a Cave: miles outside of Konoha: an hour later**

Naruto (in his human form) had been awake for a short while and was watching a sleeping Ranmaru.

During the night he had learned from Kyuubi that the energy blast he had unleashed on the ANBU last night was an attack called the "Sonic Scream". This was an attack Kyuubi himself had used many times in the past before he was sealed. The attack took demonic chakra, condensed it into visable sound waves and was then launched toward the target(s) from the user's mouth. While earsplitting, the scream, it enough demonic chakra his used, can actually sucks the life out of whomever it is directed at (think the Silver Banshees cry from Justice League Unlimited) as well as deafen them. Kyuubi claimed that, at full power, it could flatten an entire village. Naruto had somehow awakened this power while he was frustrated, causing him to access the demonic chakra briefly.

Naruto was ecstatic upon learning of this new power he possessed. While he was thinking through the possibilities, he noticed Ranmaru beginning to wake up.

The boy looked around for a moment before he saw Naruto in his human form. He panicked at the sight of this stranger and backed away from him.

Naruto smiled, "Calm yourself child, it is I your sempai!" he declared proudly.

Ranmaru was confused, "B-but you-"

Naruto interrupted him "What you saw before was my armored appearance that I use to disguise myself" he explained, "What you see now is my true form." To further prove his point he shifts to his armored form before shifting back again.

Ranmaru nodded after recovering from his shock, "I-I see", he said quietly.

Naruto laughed, "Do not worry Ranmaru I will not harm you and I will make good on my promise to raise and train you" he told the boy. He then remembered something, "I haven't introduced myself yet have I?" he asked before clearing his throat, "My name is Naruto Uzumaki Namikaze, but others will soon know me as the Prototype!" he declared proudly.

Ranmaru stared at his sempai, not entirely sure he was right in the head.

Naruto then became serious, "My identity is one of my greatest secrets", he told his student, "If my enemies were to discover it, all that I care for would be placed in peril. I hope you will be able to keep this secret", he finished.

Ranmaru nodded, "I will sempai" he vowed.

Naruto smiled. "Good" he said and then walked up to Ranmaru.

"Now then", he said while looking Ranmaru over, "judging from the way you move, it will be quite some time before you can move your limbs properly so until then will focus on your recovery and then-" he abruptly cut off, sensing something outside of the cave.

"Sempai?" he asked worried, he then used his bloodline to peer outside of the cave. "There are five shinobi outside of the cave wearing black masks and have a kanji for 'root' on their uniforms" he told Naruto, "they know we are here and appear to be waiting for us to come out. I think they wish to speak with you" the boy concluded.

Naruto nodded, "Wait here until I return" he told Ranmaru who nodded and watched as his savior shifted into his armored appearance and began making his way toward the cave entrance.

Meanwhile outside the cave the five ROOT ANBU waited anxiously for the beast within to emerge.

"Remember not to attack it until it gives us its answer" the leader of the ROOT squad told his men, "We need to make sure this…thing is sentient and then give it Danzo-sama's offer first. Attack only if it attacks us or it refuses and remember to capture it…_alive_" he added, getting nods from the rest of the group.

They then felt the ground tremble slightly as large stomping noises were heard heading towards the cave entrance (Naruto is deliberately making his steps audible in order to intimidate the ROOT members).

Slowly, the stomping became louder as the beast came closer. Finally, after a few unbearably tense moments, the demon emerged.

The ROOT's masks hid their shock; this thing had to be _at least_ seven feet tall. True to it's description, it was covered entirely with black armor-like skin, with blood red eyes, razor-sharp teeth and claws, a fox-like head and ears, as well as broad shoulders and a fox-like tail. It was currently hunched over slightly (trying to make himself look more beast-like to further intimidate them).

The beast glared at them for a few moments, shifting it unnerving eyes between each member of the group.

Clearly, it was not happy that they were disturbing it.

After regaining his calm attitude, the ROOT leader cleared his throat; "We are here to speak with you under peaceful terms" he told the beast. The demon then focused its glare upon him. The ROOT gulped before continuing, "Do you understand me?" He asked.

The demon tilted its head to the side for a moment before lifting its head back into proper place. The beast nodded.

The leader sighed internally in relief before continuing, "Are you the entity known as 'the demon'?" he asked.

The disguised Naruto found it funny that the ROOT needed to ask. "**I am**" he told them, "**But I prefer to be called the Prototype.**"

The monster's demonic voice caused the squad to jump for a moment in surprise before they regained themselves. The leader spoke again, "Very well" he said before continuing, "We have come to deliver a proposition that you might be interested in…Prototype-san" he told the beast, adding the name and suffix at the end in an attempt to be more polite and, while curious about the name it gave itself, decided not to ask. He then waited for the demon's response.

The newly dubbed Prototype looked at each member of the group for a moment. Naruto was obviously going to decline whatever it was they were offering him, but decided to hear them out anyway. He straightened himself up and folded his arms across his muscular chest. "**I'm listening**" he told them.

The ROOT' let out a collective mental sigh of relief before the leader continued, "Our leader, Danzo Shimura, wishes to offer you a place in his ROOT division, a group we" he gestured towards himself and his squad, "are a part of, and help in his plans to…well you'll know more if you agree."

The Prototype thought for a moment before replying, "**Interesting**" he said, pretending to be interested, "**And what, if anything, would I gain from joining this…what was his name again?**" he asked, playing dumb so as to see just how devoted these fanatics were.

"Danzo Shimura" the ROOT told him, slightly annoyed, "a man who is a high-ranking member of our villages council and a man who will soon change the world as we know it" he explained, "And he can offer you power beyond your wildest imagination and you will be given a place in the new world he will bring" he finished in tone that resembled a man talking about his god.

The Prototype cocked one of his not-currently-present eyebrows, "'**Change the world?'**" he asked, "**How? How can any one man change the world, let alone rule it?**" he asked in a non-believing voice.

The ROOT started to become angry, "If you join us, you will see" he answered in an aggravated tone, "Now, do you accept or not?" he asked.

The Prototype pretended to think for a moment. He then proceeded to approach them slightly. The ROOT members backed up and reached for their weapons. The Prototype then proceeded to sniff the air around them. After doing this for a moment he stepped back and looked at the squad, "**You all smell of (sniff, sniff)…Treachery (deep sniff)…your leader plans on betraying me...and making me into a mindless tool…like all of you (2)**" he told them in a sure voice, "**Thanks for the offer, but I know an empty promise when I hear one…and besides…power beyond my wildest imagination?**" he scoffed, "**I already have that and can gain more from the various wicked people I kill**" he explained and decided to test their patience and continued to provoke them, "**Hmm…I wonder if this 'Danzo' has anything I could gain by killing him…or you**" he finished.

The ROOT squad was now infuriated, "You dare insult and then threaten Danzo-sama? The man who is making you an offer that only comes once in a thousand lifetimes?" the leader yelled while he and his teammates unsheathed their weapons.

The Prototype laughed demonically, "**You speak as if he were a god**" he accused them before continuing to laugh. He then sighed, "**To tell you the honest truth (as there can be no other), I already know who your master is**" he told them. The ROOT froze. "**I only pretended not to because I wanted to know just how deluded you all really were**" he told them before grinning, "**I've always despised the crippled old freak and my disgust towards him grew after the things I learned from your fellow ROOT member yesterday when I killed him…Tenma, was it?**"

The ROOT were stunned, "Y-you killed him?" the leader asked. Tenma had not reported back yesterday and an entire squad was sent to find him. The group was probably still looking.

The Prototype nodded while grinning, "**Correct, and boy, did he share **_**such**_** secrets with me, secrets that are now mine to know…Etaino (3)**" he finished, adding the ROOT leaders "name" that was given to him by Danzo, at the end.

Said ROOT leader's eyes widened behind his mask while he took a step back, "H-how-?" he asked, wondering how this monster had gotten Tenma to tell it what he knew without activating the seal that was planted at the back of each ROOT members throat. The seal prevented each member from spilling the division's secrets. The Prototype interrupted him.

"**Oh, I learned many things from that pitiful little drone**" he told the group and then grinned as he began to tell the shocked ROOT operatives what he had learned, "**ROOT's secret underground training facility, Danzo's plan to become Hokage, even his involvement with Hanzo of the Salamander and ROOT's involvement with him to help quell an uprising in Amegakure, a mission that failed exponentially, I might add!**"

The ROOT members were shocked and horrified. This thing had found out some of ROOT's greatest secrets. Secrets that would destroy the organization if they were revealed.

"B-but how?" the man known as Etaino asked in a panicked voice, "W-we all h-have s-seals that prevent us f-from t-telling anyone anyth-"

The Prototype interrupted him again, "**What is that I hear in your voice? Is it…fear?**"He laughed, "**And here I thought that all ROOT were trained to suppress their emotions. Guess that lesson never took.**" He laughed a bit more and then sighed, "**The answer to your question is** **simple really**" he explained, "**The seal is only effective while the person is still alive. When they die however, the seal disappears and then their secrets become mine**" he told them while laughing manically.

"But how do you learn something from someone who's dead?" Etaino asked managing to hide the fear he and his fellows were trained to suppress.

The Prototype grinned, "**You know those bodies of the people I kill that never turn up?** **The victims who only leave a shit-load of blood behind?**" he asks them. They nod and he continues. "**Well…those people die in a different way**" he told them and briefly flashes a Genjutsu that shows him killing and consuming a victim, "**When I do that to a person I gain that persons memories and skills**" he told them before shifting into Tenma's form, to the ROOT squads shock, "I also gain their appearance as well" he continued in Tenma's voice, "With this power, I can gain a lifetime's worth of experience in an instant. I literally _become _the person I absorb into myself" he said before pausing to let that piece of information sink in and shifting back into his armored and continuing, "**And once I consume **_**you**_" he pointed to Etaino, "**I will learn everything you know and I will kill Danzo using your memories, so that, in a way, **_**you**_** will be responsible for **_**his**_** death, oh that's right Etaino, it'll be all. Your. Fault**" he told the man, saying each word separately so that they will sink in, and then snickering afterward.

Etaino and his fellow ROOTs lost it after that and charged the Prototype, shouting "DIE!" as they went, completely forgetting about their orders. The Prototype smirked and shifted his arms into their clawed form, "**LET'S PARTY!**" he shouted as he charged at them.

**Five minutes (and several girly screams) later:**

Ranmaru had seen the fight with his bloodline and was amazed at how easily his sempai had dispatched the five ANBU-level ninja so quickly after toying with them.

A few seconds later, Naruto entered the cave in his human form while dusting off his trench-coat.

"Too easy" he complained, before looking at Ranmaru's glowing red eyes before the boy deactivated them. Naruto realized that the boy had seen the entire fight. He sat down in front of said boy.

"I'm sorry you had to see that child", he told the five year old boy sincerely.

Ranmaru shook his head, "It's alright sempai" he told his mentor, "You did what had to be done."

Naruto smiled and ruffled the boy's hair playfully, "Good boy", he told him. "Now then", he said, while sitting back, "I bet you wish to know about the abilities I used out there?" he asked his student. Ranmaru nodded eagerly and Naruto began telling him about his past and his abilities. Ranmaru was shocked that people could treat someone so kind so cruelly but found that his sempai's past was very similar to his own; both were shunned for something they could not help. After a few hours, Naruto finished his story and suddenly discovered a memory from Etaino that he thought he should check out.

"Alright, my student, I just found a memory I need to look into" he told Ranmaru as he got up, "Sit tight. I'll be back in a bit."

Ranmaru began to protest, "Where are you going?" he asked.

"To visit an old acquaintance" the blonde answered.

"Can I come with you?" Ranmaru asked hopefully.

"No" Naruto told him firmly, "You're still recovering and I don't want you to get hurt in case I become reckless" he said a then looked into his sad student's face, "Don't worry" he told the boy, "I'm going to leave a group of shadow clones behind to guard you and you can talk to them as if they were me" he saw Ranmaru was still upset, "Come on, don't give me that face. I'll be back in a little while and then I can start teaching you. I'll make it up to you soon, I promise."

Ranmaru cheered up at that thought and smiled, "Okay sempai" he said eagerly.

Naruto smiled at him; "Good" he said before bending down and ruffling the boy's hair again. He then created three shadow clones, "I'll be back soon" he said as he left.

Once outside, Naruto shifted into his armored form and began leaping through the trees.

'You should have stayed in prison Mizuki' he thought while grinning evilly, 'I let you live once, but this time I will show no mercy. You thought I was a demon before? Wait till you see what I am NOW' he thought while sprinting through the trees, imagining the different ways he could kill the traitorous fool once and for all.

**Konoha: the Hokage's office, two hours earlier**

Team 10 (minus Asuma) and what remained of team seven stood before the Godaime Hokage, Tsuande Senju with her assistant Shizune (holding Tonton) beside her, waiting for their orders.

Tsunade cleared her throat, "As you may already know, three convicts escaped from the village's prison during the confusion last night" she told the two teams.

Kakashi spoke up, "Mizuki and the Legendary Stupid Brothers, right?" he inquired.

"Correct" Tsunade told him, "Your mission is to locate and then capture them; _alive_" she said looking at Sasuke.

Shikamaru spoke up, "Will we be escorting them back to prison?" he asked.

Tsunade shook her head, "No, you will only have to subdue them; the ANBU will take care of the actual prison escort."

Sakura spoke up, "Mizuki?" she asked, "As in Mizuki-sensei our old academy instructor?"

Tsunade nodded.

"Why was he in prison?" the pinkette asked, confused. Mizuki's arrest was never made public, rarely any arrests are.

The ones from Konoha anyway.

"More than a year ago, he tricked Naruto Uzumaki into stealing the Forbidden Scroll in an attempt to acquire it for Orochimaru" she told them. The genin were wide eyed at this.

Sasuke scoffed, "Typical" he said, "the loser fell for such an obvious trick."

Tsuande glared at him, "Watch your tone Uchiha, or I'll personally make sure you do nothing but D-ranked missions for the next five years" she told him. Sakura was about to defend him but the Godaime Hokage silenced her with a glare.

"As I was saying" she said after clearing her throat, "Mizuki tricked Naruto into stealing the scroll and was confronted by Naruto and Iruka Umino" she continued, "Mizuki incapacitated Iruka, and was defeated by Naruto soon afterward" she finished mentally grinning at Sakura's shock and Sasuke's anger.

Sakura was shocked because the "dead-last" had defeated a Chuunin level shinobi before even graduating. Sasuke, meanwhile, was angered that the "dobe" had beaten Mizuki, one of the academy's instructors. He calmed down and grinned, he would defeat and capture Mizuki and prove, once again, that he was better than Naruto.

Ino, meanwhile, was grinning, proud of what her late boyfriend had done.

"Who are the Legendary Stupid Brothers?" Choji asked.

"They were a pair of shinobi brothers who killed their own comrades for food" Kakashi told him. Choji went wide eyed.

Not even _he_ was that desperate for food.

Kakashi continued, "Their strength is matched only by their stupidity, hence their name, and apparently the only reason they haven't broken out of prison until now is because of the food the guards gave them" he finished telling the amazed group.

Tsunade cleared her throat; "You all have your orders, depart the village within the hour" she told them.

They nodded and left.

Tsunade sighed and placed her head in her hands.

Shizune looked at her mentor with a worried look, "Tsunade-sama? Are you alright?" she asked, concerned.

"I'm fine Shizune" she told her student, "I just…I…" she tried to say.

Shizune understood, "You still miss him" she finished for her teacher. Naruto was always a touchy subject around Tsunade and she avoided talking about him as little as possible. The first month after his death, she had drowned her sorrows in sake (more than usual, at any rate). After she got out of her depressed stupor, she quit drinking almost completely (she still needed alcohol in order to deal with the council's bitching) and quit gambling entirely. She then vowed to continue to be Hokage and change the village in her surrogate son's memory. She, once again, wore the necklace she had given to Naruto, the only thing she had left to remind her of him. She also became quick to violence towards anyone who insulted the late blonde. Mostly, this involved trips to the hospital for the offending people, but that changed after a certain incident.

One of Tsunade's ANBU guards had the gall to whisper how glad he was that the "demon-brat" was gone and hoped he was suffering in hell. He whispered this to another ANBU. Fortunately, this particular ANBU held no particular ill-feelings towards Naruto and quietly told his friend to shut up in case the Hokage heard him, but the offending ANBU was certain she did not hear him.

He was wrong.

The poor man never saw the punch coming. Instead of being thrown back by force of the punch, the man's head splattered all over the place.

His head came apart like a watermelon being dropped from the top of the Hokage Tower.

From that point onward, no one ever said anything negative about Naruto around the slug-sannin again. Hell, some people were afraid to even _think_ anything negative around her!

Tsunade nodded, "Damn gaki…he was…he was like a son to me", she said, her voice breaking, a small tear forming in her eyes, and a small sob escaping her.

Shizune put a hand of her mentor's shoulder who quickly shrugged it off, "I'm fine Shizune, I'm fine" she told her student, "I just…I just need to think positive! Like…" She thought for a moment before she brightened up and said "…maybe pinky and the Uchiha will get killed by Mizuki during the mission!" with a very positive look on her face.

Shizune was shocked for a brief moment before shouting "Tsunade-sama!" in a tone that resembled a parent scolding a child while pointing at her. She was barely able to contain her own laughter. Eventually, she no longer tried to.

They both laughed for a while, glad for the temporary distraction from their mutual pain.

**Forest outside of Konoha: Present time**

The Prototype (aka Naruto Uzumaki Namikaze) was leaping through the trees while hunting for an old acquaintance he wanted to kill.

Badly.

'Now then' he thought to himself, 'Now…where is the old punching bag? What little hidey-hole are you using Mizuki?' he wondered as he stopped and activated his thermal vision and looked around.

It didn't take him long before he spotted something.

He saw five people a good distance from himself.

At least he _thought_ they were people.

Three of them were average enough in size but the other two were _huge_. They looked to be the size of himself in his armored form at the least and twice as wide. Their movement's seemed to be hindered at the moment.

He quickly leapt through the trees towards the sight at a steady pace.

**Nearby battlefield: Team 10 vs. The Legendary Stupid Brothers**

Team 10 was currently in a heated battle against the immensely strong Stupid Brothers. The two barely paid the group any attention to the trio at first, until Ino and Choji accidently destroyed the sibling's lunch, causing them to enter a violent frenzy. So far, the two brothers were unable to move due to Shikamaru's Shadow Imitation Technique and Raijin was currently being strangled by the Shadow Neck Bind Technique. Unfortunately, however, the brother's physical strength was making it difficult for the Nara clan heir to maintain the technique.

Fujin, confused by the gargling noises Raijin was making as he was being strangled, managed to lift one of his arms up and began shaking his younger brother, trying to snap him out of it.

"Brother? What's wrong with you?" Fujin shouted in a clueless voice as he shook his younger sibling violently.

Unbeknownst to Fujin, his shaking of Raijin was putting more strain on Shikamaru, who was barely able to keep his techniques together as it was.

"Ino!" he shouted to his blonde teammate, "I can't keep this up much longer" he told her grunting at the end under the strain.

Ino nodded, "Got it!" she told him, and made her family's heart shaped hand sign, "Mind Body Disturbance Technique!" she shouted.

Raijin froze for a brief moment and then turned to face Fujin. He then punched his older brother in the gut, making Fujin gasp in pain, before then punching him in the face. Before Fujin could recover, Rajin put his large, muscular hands around his brother's throat and began strangling him.

Ino smirked, her clan's jutsu was working well and, better yet, the Shadow Neck Bind was still strangling Raijin, preventing him from speaking. The end result? Fujin thinks Raijin has betrayed him.

Neither brother was capable of speaking at the moment so they couldn't accuse/defend their actions.

Despite this added technique, the two brothers were still overpowering Team 10. Choji, seeing his teammates in trouble, prepared his clans technique.

"Partial Multi-Size Technique!" he shouts. Both of his arms enlarge greatly. Choji then proceeds to grasp both brothers with each of his hands and, using his own enhanced strength, began crushing the two as tightly as he could.

The two idiot brothers were now _very_ confused as to what was happening, but seemed to realize that the three Chunnin (Choji and Ino passed the exams earlier in the year) standing nearby were the source of their discomfort. They began struggling harder than before in order to free themselves.

Team 10 was soon finding it difficult to keep the two contained.

"It's no use", Shikamaru told his teammates, "We can't hold them forever", he concluded, grunting under the strain of holding the two.

"Then what do we do?" Ino asked, also grunting.

Shikamaru thought for a moment before speaking, "Start flaring your chakra", he told them, "Hopefully backup will arrive before they break free", he finished.

The other two nodded, and began flashing their chakra along with their teammate, trying to signal nearby Shinobi to assist them.

But no one came.

Finally, the Neo Ino-Shika-Cho! formation was unable to hold the brothers any longer and were forced to drop their clan techniques.

Without saying a word, Fujin and Raijin charged the three once they were freed, completely forgetting about their previous predicament where they had been forced to attack each other.

Raijin swatted Shikamaru and Choji aside. The two were were hurled into the nearby trees and were knocked unconscious. Fujin did the same to Ino except she managed to remain conscious.

"Now you will pay for ruining our lunch!" Fujin said.

The elder of the two siblings lifted up his arm and prepared to punch Ino again. Ino knew she was too exhausted and injured to dodge in time.

She braced herself for the devastating blow…

But nothing came.

After a moment Ino decided to open her eyes to see what had happened. She was shocked by what she saw.

There, standing in front of her, was a _massive_, demonic being. It was almost the exact same size as the two brothers. It had a large, muscular body, broad shoulders, and a fox-like tail. Though she could not see it's face, Ino knew from the description that this thing standing in front of her was the infamous "demon" she had heard so much about and had encountered the previous night.

The blonde genin was even more amazed to find that this…whatever it was had Fujin's fist clutched in both of it's own. The creature had caught Fujin's punch.

The Prototype stood in front of the shocked Stupid Brother and grunted under the strain it took to hold back the punch.

'God damn!' he thought to himself as he continued pushing, 'It's like catching and holding back cannon fire!' he thought.

He knew these two would be strong, but not _this_ strong!

Fujin was confused as to what this creature standing before him was, but knew that it was stopping him from avenging his destroyed lunch. He lifted his other fist and threw it at the demonic beast in front of him.

'Shit!' the Prototype thought as the saw the punch coming, 'I can't stop it with only one arm!'

Nevertheless, instinctually, he moved one of his arms and held it up to catch the punch.

Then, something…unexpected happened.

Both of the Prototypes arms were covered in the same pulsating black and dark-red substance as before when his arms or body would change shape. But this time they changed into something he had never seen before.

Both arms and hands greatly increased in size and turned a grayish color.

To the Prototypes further astonishment, his enlarged fist caught Fujin's punch with ease.

He then realized that his other fist was holding back the brothers other fist easily.

Whatever this form was, it seemed to greatly enhance his strength.

Now the tide of the battle had changed.

The Prototype then tossed the second fist away and used the same arm to smash his enhanced fist into Fujin's face.

The brother would have been sent flying back from the immense force of the blow, but could not due to the Prototypes other fist, which was still clutching his other arm.

The Prototype then punched Fujin in the gut before unleashing an uppercut to the brother's chin.

Fujin went flying straight up and hit the ground, hard, causing an immense crater.

Raijin was shocked and afraid; no one had ever matched, let alone surpassed, the two brothers in strength before.

Fujin got up while rubbing his chin with one hand and holding his gut with the other, staring at the Prototype with fear in his eyes.

"Who…who are you?" Raijin asked while pointing at the beast standing a few feet away.

The Prototype glared at the two, "**I? I am…your worst **_**nightmare**_**!**" he shouted at the two, saying the last word with particular malice, "**And you two**", he said while pointing at them, "**Will not lay a hand on **_**my**_** angel!**" he finished, growling at the two with a sound that promised them an agonizing death.

Ino, who was still conscious, was stunned by what her monstrous savior had just said.

'Angel?' she thought, 'No one has ever called me that except-', and then she realized.

'No', she thought in disbelief, 'Could it be…him?' she thought.

Meanwhile, the Legendary Stupid Brothers were terrified of the being in front of them. They had no idea what they had done to piss this thing off but they were afraid of what it could, and probably would, do to them.

In the blink of an eye, the two very large siblings were on the ground, on their hands and knees, bowing before the beast in front of them.

"We're sorry!" Fujin shouted, his voice filled with fear.

"Please don't hurt us!" Raijin begged, equally as afraid.

The Prototype couldn't help but sweatdrop at this sight. Two of the (physically) strongest shinobi in existence were begging for mercy after only a few hits on one of them.

Ino, while still reeling from the shock of a (possible) revelation, also sweatdropped at the sight. These two were about to kill her and her teammates?

'How _pathetic_', she thought.

The two brothers continued to grovel at the Prototype's feet for a few moments. Finally, the annoyed Prototype rolled his eyes and spoke.

"**Alright, fine, I'll spare you**", he told the pair of imbeciles. They were so pitiful they weren't even worth killing.

The brothers looked up at him with a gleam of hope in their eyes.

"**IF…**", the Prototype continued in a serious tone, causing the siblings hope to waver slightly, "**You both return to prison immediately**" he finished.

The two brothers were about to say something before the beast in front of them continued, "**And if you don't hurry up…**", he told them with a climatic pause at the end, "**You won't receive any dinner**", he finished with a sadistic smirk on his face.

The brothers froze with terrified looks on their faces. The very _thought_ of missing a meal of any kind was _horrifying_ to them. The two jumped up and took off toward the prison with a speed that would make Guy or Lee jealous.

"**A** **wise decision indeed**", the Prototype said. He then shifted his arms back to normal and turned toward Ino…only to realize that she was still conscious.

"**Oh! Hi! Uh…how, uh…how long have you been listening?**" he asked her uncertainly.

Ino, though terrified of this thing at first, answered honestly and clearly, "Pretty much since you showed up", she told him.

"**Oh! I, uh...did you, um…did you happen to hear a certain something I said a little while ago after I punched the Glutton in the face?**" he asked. He had his fingers internally crossed, hoping she wouldn't be able to put the pieces together.

Unfortunately, she did.

"You mean the part where you called me 'Angel'?" she asked, "Yeah, I did", she told him in a matter-of-fact tone.

The Prototype said nothing as he saw the realization in her eyes.

After a moment of silence, Ino struggled, and eventually managed, to get to her feet. She took a few steps forward (while he took a few steps back), looked into his demonic eyes, and whispered only one word:

"Naruto-kun?" she asked, her voice filled with hope, remembering that Naruto's body was never actually recovered.

Was this him? Could this be him? Was it possible that this being standing before her was the man she loved so dearly? Was her true love still alive, standing only a few feet away from her?

The beast said nothing, but had a look of intense heart-ache in its blood-red eyes.

Finally, after a few moments, the Prototype whispered a single word:

"**Angel**", he said with a voice that was filled with longing and pain.

Before Ino could respond, a groan was heard nearby. She turned to see her teammates getting up. She heard Shikamaru mutter "troublesome" under his breath.

Choji groaned a rubbed the back of his head. He then looked up at his teammate "Ino?" he asked, "What happened?"

"I-", Ino was about to respond when she turned to where the Prototype had been…only to find he was gone.

"Ino?" Shikamaru asked, "What's wrong?" and then he realized something, "Wait! Where did the Stupid Brothers go? And how are we still alive?" he asked as he and Choji looked around and then at their blonde teammate expectantly, waiting for an answer.

The Yamanaka clan heir, meanwhile, was staring at the spot where her savior once stood. She was hurt that she didn't get an answer.

"Ino?" Choji asked again, "What happened?"

Ino thought for a moment and decided to tell her teammates the truth…leaving out the possibility that Naruto was still alive.

"That thing saved me", she whispered in an awed voice.

Her teammates were confused, "What 'thing'?" Shikamaru asked her.

Ino gulped. "The…the 'demon'", she answered him in a low voice.

The two boy's eyes went wide, "The 'demon'?" Shikamaru asked, "As in, the demon that has been sighted throughout the Elemental Nations? The demon that killed Raiga Kurosaki? The demon that stormed through our village last night? _That_ demon?" he asked, getting a nod from Ino.

The two were shocked, "What happened?" Choji asked, concerned.

"I'm not sure", Ino told them, "One moment that big guy was about the punch me, the next the demon caught the punch and beat the shit out of the guy!" she told them honestly.

"What happened next?" Shikamaru asked, still amazed, yet in a worried tone.

"The two got really scared and begged it not to hurt them", she told them, "It said it wouldn't hurt them if they returned to prison. The two ran off, It stared at me for a moment, and then it left", she finished.

The blonde's teammates were stunned.

"Did anything else happen?" Shikamaru asked her.

Ino shook her head and he sighed, "Troublesome, lets head back and tell Kakashi-sensei what happened" he told the others.

As they were about to leave, the Cyclops himself and his team arrived. After seeing the devastation he looked at Team 10.

"Did we miss something?" Kakashi asked.

Cue sweatdrop from everyone.

**Inside a nearby Secret Hideout: a few minutes later**

Mizuki was currently waiting for the two Stupid Brothers anxiously, inside an abandoned hideout, on the top floor. Mizuki had changed only slightly since the last time he had been outside of prison. The only about him that changed was that he was far more muscular than before. This was more out of necessity than anything else; you didn't last long in prison unless you were strong enough to deal with the other inmates. He's also a bit…moodier these days. He had learned about Naruto Uzumaki's death a few months ago and had planned to break out in order to take revenge on the "demon-brat" for humiliating him and throwing him in prison. Of course, now that that chance had been squashed, he broke out only to escape. He could have gone after Iruka, but he wasn't worth it.

"Where the _hell_ are they?" Mizuki asked impatiently, "They should have been here by now!" he said in an annoyed voice. If they didn't hurry up he was going to have to leave without them. He didn't want to head to Otogakure without backup to help deal with any hunter-nin that might chase after him, but he couldn't just sit around and wait for Konoha shinobi to come after him either.

All of a sudden, he heard a demonic voice echo throughout the room.

"**Your flunkies have abandoned you**", it told Mizuki.

Mizuki looked around the room, slightly afraid of what was happening.

"Who's there?" he asked while searching, "Show yourself!" he demanded.

"**Up here**", the voice called back.

Mizuki looked up and saw what looked like a demon from the deepest pits of hell. It was hunched over, leaning against a support column it was on. It was grinning, demonically and opened mouthed, at Mizuki. It then, while still keeping it's eyes focused on him, turned it's head to the right and clamped it's jaw shut with an audible snap, making it's smile even larger while looking even more demonic as it did so.

Mizuki was stunned, "Who…or what the hell are you?" he asked nervously.

"**I am known by some as the 'demon'**", he told the shocked missing-nin, "**But that's too simple for my tastes…so! You may call me…the Prototype!**" he declared proudly.

The silver haired Chuunin stared at this…thing in front of him. After a few tense moments, Mizuki decided to ask, "What do you want?"

The Prototype pretended to for a consider moment "**A lifetime supply of ramen, to be with the people I care about and, oh yes,** **your life!**" he told the traitorous chuunin with a sinister smirk on his face.

Mizuki started to sweat internally. "What? Why?" he asked, barely hiding the panic in his voice, "What did I ever do to you?" he questioned the beast. 'What the _fuck_ is this _thing_?' he thought to himself. It was almost twice his size!

The Prototype jumped down from his perch, "**Oh we met a **_**long**_** time ago Mizuki**", he told his former academy teacher, "**We last met over a year ago**", he hinted to the frightened man in front of him.

Mizuki thought for a few moments, but couldn't think of anything he had done in the past that could have caused him to bring this beast's wrath down upon him.

"**You really don't have a clue do you?**" the Prototype asked, disappointed, but not surprised. He sighed, "**Then I guess I'll have to…**_**remind **_**you as to who I am!**"

Mizuki backed up slightly at the change in tone but quickly regained his confidence; he did have a power that his master, Orochimaru, had given him, but he hadn't been able to use it yet. Maybe now he would get that chance.

"You have guts, threatening me like that", he told the Prototype with a confident smirk on his face, "Don't you know who I work for?" he asked.

"**No and I honestly can't say that I care either**", he told the now angered Chuunin, "**It doesn't matter either way.** **You're just another vile being I must rid the world of…though, considering our past, I think I'll enjoy this as well**", he finished.

Mizuki still had no idea what this demonic creature was talking about but it didn't matter.

"You're right", he said, "It doesn't matter...", he then grabbed the fuma shuriken behind his back, "…seeing as how you're about to die ANYWAY!" he shouted as he threw the shuriken at the beast in front of him.

Though he could have easily dodged it, the Prototype did not move. Instead he waited until it was just about to hit him and then…he reached out and caught it with one hand…easily.

He looked at the shuriken for a moment and then looked at the shocked Mizuki.

"**Well, that was...**", he paused briefly while thinking of the right word, "**…anticlimactic**", he finished. He then looked over the shuriken with an expressionless look on his face.

"**Catch**", he told Mizuki calmly, after a few moments, before flicking his wrist casually, hurling the shuriken back at him.

Mizuki panicked at how fast his shuriken was coming back at him. Thinking quickly, he made a few hand seals before shouting, "Earth Release: Underground Projection Fish Technique!"

At these words, he sunk underground, just narrowly avoiding his own shuriken, which imbedded itself in the wall behind him.

The Prototype took up a fighting stance and waited…but nothing came.

He looked around for a moment.

'Hm', he thought, 'he's not coming at me from the left, right, or from above me, so that means he's coming from…below!', and, sure enough he jumped out of the way in time to dodge Mizuki, who emerged from underneath him, swinging a kunai at him.

The Prototype landed on the wall on the other side of the room and then launched himself towards Mizuki, hitting the silver haired man with a flying kick to the face.

Mizuki went flying across the room before hitting the ground, rolling before he stopped. He got up, holding his face for a moment, and then stared at the demonic being in shock and fear. It felt like he had been kicked by a horse!

"**I certainly hope that wasn't the best you had**", the Prototype told Mizuki, "**Because if it was…you'd best submit to death now.**"

Mizuki growled in anger, "You want to see the best I have?" he challenged before the tattoo on his right elbow began to glow. His body then began to change, enlarging and becoming bulkier while black stripes began appearing on his upper arms and forehead. His appearance became more beast-like.

"You got it!" Mizuki finished, and then charged.

The Prototype jumped to the left just in time. 'Damn', he thought, 'his speed has increased greatly! It almost reminds me of the curse seal Sasuke used', he thought to himself as he dodged.

Mizuki then leapt toward the Prototype. The Prototype grabbed a hold of the man's wrists and the two began wrestling, trying to make an opening for another attack.

'God dammit, his strength has increased to!' the Prototype thought, 'Forget "almost", this is _definitely_ like the curse seal!' he concluded to himself.

After a few moments, the Prototype sees an opening. He throws Mizuki's writs aside and then crouches before tackling the transformed man and running across the room while wrapping his arms around Mizuki's waist and carrying him. He reaches the other side and slams Mizuki into the wall, creating a small crack in it. The Prototype than backs away from the stunned Mizuki and grabs the traitors face with his hand. He then slams Mizuki's head, hard, into the wall three times (making the crack in the wall grow with each hit) before throwing him across the room.

Mizuki flew across the room and slammed into the wall on the other side, causing another crack in the wall. Mizuki stands up, holding his face while groaning from the pain. He then looks at his foe and growls before launching himself towards him. The Prototype is tackled to the ground, but manages to lift Mizuki's body up with his feet and launches silver haired Chuunin over himself while leaping to his feat. Mizuki flies into another section of the wall and slams into it.

Mizuki gets up and glares at the Prototype while growling at him even more angrily than before.

The Prototype grins, "**That all you got?**" he asks.

Mizuki roars in anger as his tattoo begins to glow again. Once again, his body glows and begins to change. He became larger and more muscular than before and grows razor sharp teeth and claws. His body changed color, becoming orange, while more stripes appeared, this time covering his entire body. When the transformation was over, Mizuki looked like a humanoid tiger. He roared an inhuman roar before charging.

The Prototype recovered from his shock and began grappling with the traitor once again. This time, however, he was easily overpowered and hurled across the room, slamming into the wall. He then looks up just in time to dodge a shattering punch from Mizuki and rolls out of the way.

The two combatants square off and began circling each other.

Mizuki stares at his demonic opponent and then begins to laugh, "DO YOU SEE NOW?" he asks in a bestial voice, "MY MASTER, OROCHIMARU, HAS GIVEN ME ULTIMATE POWER; NO ONE CAN STOP ME NOW, NOT EVEN YOU!" he yells before laughing maniacally.

The Prototype glares at his laughing opponent while thinking. 'He's right. He is stronger than me now…in terms of physical strength at least', he thinks to himself and then smirks, 'But I wonder if his speed has improved as well.'

At these words he lunges at the still laughing Mizuki and lands a powerful punch into his gut. Mizuki gasps and then grasps his stomach in pain. The Prototype then unleashes an uppercut on Mizuki's chin and sends him into the air, slamming him into the ceiling before falling to the ground. Mizuki got up a few seconds later and, while rubbing his chin, growls at his foe.

"THAT WAS A CHEAP SHOT!" he accused.

The Prototype shakes his head, "**No it wasn't**", he told the monstrous man before him, "**You were distracted. I simply took advantage of that fact and turned it against you**", he explained.

Mizuki, once again, growls before lunging at the Prototype.

The Prototype dodges. Mizuki tries again and the Prototype dodges once again. This process repeated itself.

The Prototype kept dodging Mizuki while smirking; he was right, Mizuki did surpass him in strength but not in speed.

"**Here kitty, kitty, kitty**", he called, taunting Mizuki.

Mizuki was getting agitated and kept lunging at his foe, "HOLD STILL DAMMIT!" he shouted as he lunged again.

The Prototype dodged again while grinning, "**Why?**" he asks, "**So you can grab me again? Sorry, not gonna happen**", he told his foe before continuing; "**You're a fool Mizuki. You are stronger than me physically, but you're much slower, and less agile, than I am. You should have known better. Sacrificing speed for power has never helped any warrior**", he told Mizuki while laughing at the man's attempts to catch him.

Mizuki growls and launches himself forward. This time he grabs the Prototype around the waist. He lifts his demonic foe into the air and then begins crushing him, trying to break him in half.

"HA!" Mizuki says triumphantly, "I HAVE YOU NOW!"

The Prototype grunts under the pressure Mizuki is using while crushing him but quickly snaps out of it. His fists morph into his newly acquired muscular form he used on the Stupid Brothers.

"**Oh yeah?**" he asks Mizuki before slamming his enlarged fist into the man's face.

Mizuki loosens his grip and the Prototype slams his other fist into Mizuki's face causing him to let go and fall to the ground before getting up.

Mizuki holds his face for a moment before glaring at his foe again in shock and anger.

The Prototype smirks and holds his arm out, making a "bring-it-on" gesture with his middle and index finger.

Mizuki roars and lunges again, but this time instead of dodging, the Prototype grabs the man's fists and they begin wrestling for control again. This time, however, the Prototype easily holds his own against Mizuki.

"**You're good**", the Prototype told his opponent, "**Very good. Better than last time at least", **he told Mizuki.

Mizuki was getting tired of trying to figure out when he and this…thing had ever met before.

"I'VE NEVER EVEN MET YOU BEFORE!" he shouts.

The Prototype grins demonically, "**Oh but you have…**Mizuki-sensei", he answers in his real voice.

Mizuki's eyes widened in shock and he lessens his grip.

"No", he mutters in shock, "No…it…it can't be", he says, quietly for once, in his bestial voice.

The Prototype uses this moment of shock to end the fight.

(**Play Rage of Sparta from God of War 3**)

He quickly knees Mizuki in the gut. He then grabs Mizuki and throws him across the room. The Chuunin slams into the wall, hard, and causes yet another crack to form in the wall. The Prototype then rushes forward and begins pounding the tiger-like man into the wall with his enhanced fists relentlessly. The blows kept coming harder and harder and the wall begins cracking more and more. After a few minutes, the Prototype then pauses and stares at the badly battered and bloodied Mizuki. Finally, he cocks his fist back and slams it into Mizuki's face as hard as he could. A sickening crunching sound was heard from Mizuki's face as the wall finally gave out and Mizuki was launched through it, outside.

(**End music**)

**Outside the hideout: a few minutes earlier**

Teams 7 and 10 were all together now. Kakashi summoned Pakkun, who lead them to the hideout quickly.

The teams stop.

"There", Pakkun points to the hideout with his paw, "He should be inside that hideout and-", he pauses as he smells the air around him.

The teams stared at the little dog, "What is it Pakkun?" Kakashi asks.

"There's…something else here", he tells the others. He sniffs the air again and shudders, "Something dark. It almost smells…demonic."

Before anyone could ask what "it" was, they heard muffled banging noises come from inside the hideout.

"W-what's that?" Sakura asked, frightened.

"I'm not sure", Kakashi answered her, "But it sounds like it's coming from inside the hideout", he concluded.

As the teams kept staring, the noises were becoming louder.

"Look" Choji points at the second floor of the hideout, "There's a crack forming in the wall up there!" he shouts.

They all look to where he is pointing and, sure enough, a crack was forming. The noises were louder and coming more rapidly. The crack in the wall grew with each noise.

"Is something trying to break out of there?" Ino asked the others.

"Looks like it", Pakkun answered, getting more and more nervous with each noise.

The noises became more and more rapid and the wall was cracking even more. The teams prepared themselves for what was about to come…

Finally, the noises stop.

Teams 7 and 10 stared at the crack for a moment and take in the silence.

For a few more seconds, all was quiet and then…

BOOM!

The wall breaks open under a massive show of force and a figure is seen being launched out of it.

The body hit the ground and rolled over a bit before stopping, on its stomach, a couple of yards away from the teams.

Everyone stared at it for a moment. It was muscular and had long silver hair on its head. The body was orange with black stripes on it. It looked like a tiger, only without a tail and being more humanoid in appearance. There was a lot of blood coming from it, particularly where the face was, as well as a chunky, organic substance as well.

Before anyone could say anything, the body began to glow. It began to shrink in size and mass and the orange color and black stripes began to fade away. Eventually, it returned to it's original form, that of a muscular, silver haired man.

For a moment no one said anything.

Finally, Sasuke broke the silence, "Was that a…curse seal?" he asked.

Kakashi thought for a moment. It DID look like a curse seal transformation. "I think so", he told his student, "And I think _that's_ Mizuki", he told everyone while pointing at the body.

Pakkun carefully approached the body and sniffed it, wincing slightly.

"Yep, that's him alright", the little dog told everyone, "But I think he's dead."

Kakashi walked towards the body and kneeled over it. The others followed him closely behind. The Cyclops checked the man's pulse. "Yeah, he's dead" he confirmed. He then flipped Mizuki's body over on it's back, in order to see his face.

Or lack thereof.

Everyone gasped as to what they saw.

If it wasn't for the man's silver hair and scent, no one would be able to recognize who it was. Mizuki's skull and been completely smashed into his head, the eyes, mouth, and nose were gone, the face completely obliterated. Blood and the disgusting substance were leaking from it. It wasn't long before they realized that the grey, blood-covered, meaty substance was what was left of Mizuki's brain. There were skull fragments as well.

Kakashi and Pakkun just stared at the remains in horror. It took everything Team 10 had to not throw up. Sakura actually did throw up. Even Sasuke, who had seen his entire family murdered, looked green at the sight.

"W-what could've done this?" Sakura asked in horror.

Everyone was asking themselves this question…but Ino already knew. She looked up to where the wall Mizuki had been blasted through was and saw someone…or something, standing there.

"Look!" she pointed at hole.

Everyone looked up…and their eyes widened.

There, standing in all it's glory, was the infamous "demon".

It matched it's description in the Bingo Book par none (he shifted his arms back to normal as well).

It was glaring at them with a look that shook them to their bone.

"Ino, is that-?" Choji began to ask.

"Yeah, that's the demon", she answered her teammate.

"Damn", Choji couldn't help but say, "Look at the size of that thing!"

"What is it doing?" Sasuke asked, after a few seconds of complete silence.

"I think it's scoping us out", Kakashi answered, "trying to see if we're any threat to it."

The demon glared at them for a few moments…and then jumped towards them, landing on the ground a few yards away, making a few cracks in the ground and shaking the earth slightly.

Kakashi gulped, "Alright, don't take your eyes of it. Everyone just back up very slowly and carefully, no one make any sudden moves. There's no reason to pick a fight with it", he quietly told the others.

Everyone nodded and they began, slowly, backing away. Sasuke was not as willing to move as the others but obeyed…reluctantly.

The demon glared at them as they went. It then got on all fours, like a lizard, and approached the body carefully. It then stared at it intently.

The demon continued to stare for a few moments.

"What's it doing?" Choji whispered.

"How the hell should I know?" Shikamaru whispered back.

Pakkun sniffed the air for a moment before speaking, "Something isn't right", he told the others.

Kakashi looked at the little dog, confused, "What do you mean?" he asked.

"It's scent…it's strange, but it smells like…several different people all at once", he told them.

"What do you mean?" Ino asked.

"Most of the scents I don't recognize, but I do recognize two of them", he told the blonde genin before continuing, "I smell multiple people that I've met before…ANBU, I think…two of them belong to exactly Raiga Kurosaki's and Aoi Rokushō and the other…smells familiar but I can't quite remember where I've smelled it before…" he said, trailing off.

They were brought out of their speculations when the demon spoke.

"**Another wicked soul sent to the pits of hell, the never ending inferno**", it said quietly, mostly to itself. It sniffed the body, "**This one smells of…Treachery…to the ninth circle you will go. There you will suffer for your sins, accordingly.**"

The group was now _very_ confused as to what was going on. The demon was now acting as though they two teams were not present.

Sasuke, meanwhile, was getting impatient. This was the _second_ time that this demon had stopped him from fighting a strong opponent and now it had the gall to ignore him? He took a step forward.

Kakashi seemed to know what his student was thinking of doing. "Don't even think about it Sasuke."

"But-" he tried to explain, but Kakashi interrupted him.

"But nothing, do as I say!" he whispered sternly.

Sasuke nodded and reluctantly backed down.

The beast continued to ponder still ignoring the shinobi standing nearby. The beast stood up on two legs flipped the body over with one of it's feet and saw Mizuki's face.

"**Jesus fucking Christ are you kidding me?**" it yelled in frustration. The onlookers were jumped in surprise, shocked at the sudden change in tone, attitude, and the sudden shouting. "**Motherfucking god! Damn! It!**" it cursed, saying the last three word seperatly as it kicked Mizuki's body in anger. "**Well this is great. Just fucking GREAT! I told myself to calm down and not damage the brain and what did I do? I damage the brain!**" it then growled, "**Great waste of time this turned out to be!**" the demon then calmed down, "**Calm down Prototype, don't get angry, take a deep breath**" he did so and sighed, "**Ah! Much better!**" he said before looking down at the body, "**besides, it wasn't like he had anything valuable, I mean his skills were in the low, right? So I guess I'm missing out on much. Okay! Job's finished, another pile of human refuse is dead, and I got a little payback myself! It's a great day!**"

The humans and dog watching had their jaws dropped as they listened this powerful monster start out being philosophical, to throwing a tantrum, and then becoming cheerful.

The demon then looked at the six people, and one dog, watching it.

"**Sorry about that! My doctor says I have an anger problem I need to work on. Good thing I didn't beat someone to death with their own spine like last time!" **Now the on lookers were terrified. "**You can hold on to that if you want, consider it a gift!"** It told them gesturing towards the corpse "**See ya around!**" it told them, smiling, before shunshining away.

This form of shunshining was different though. The demon became covered in a dark-red and black substance and then disappeared.

The teams continued to stare at where the beast had stood.

"What…the fuck…was that?" Pakkun asked slowly. (3)

"I…don't know" Kakashi answered.

After a few more moments, the group managed to overcome most of their shock.

"Well", Choji asked, "Now what do we do?"

Kakashi shrugged, "I guess we head back to the village with the body", he concluded. He then quickly sealed up the body in a scroll and the teams left.

Ino, meanwhile, was thinking.

Was this "demon" her beloved Naruto? Was he still alive and, if he was, how?

'Naruto', she thought, 'is that you? If it is, what's happened to you?' she wondered, 'I don't care what you've become, I just wish I could see you again', she silently wished with all of her heart.

If he was alive, she was going to have to confront him about his temper…and introduce him to hers!

A/N: Damn that was long.

1: Yes, I took the idea of Naruto being able to smell a person's sins from King Minos in the divine comedy and the video game known as _Dante's Inferno_ (I don't own either version) and will be using some of Mino's lines from the game. I figured since I gave Naruto The Judge of The Dead's voice, I might as well go all the way. Naruto can't actually smell a person's sins, he just knows enough about the persons past, history, and affiliations to get a good idea of what the person's (or people's) predominant sin is/are. He is aiming for a "divine judgment" kind of character. Much more frightening.

2: Name taken from part of a Japanese word meaning, "mysterious".

3: I told you Naruto was going to act crazy!

Please note that Naruto's personality will change from crazy and humorous to serious and wise throughout the story. Deal with it.

I'm also thinking of adding one or two more girls for Naruto's harem (the ones I have in mind aren't commonly used girls). If you have any suggestions for any girl (or girls), tell me but give me a valid reason as to why I should add that particular girl into the mix.

Bullshit excuses like "Because they look good together", "Because she's hot", or anything else along these lines aren't valid enough reasons for me.

Don't like it? Fuck you.


End file.
